Had I read this 10, 8, even a few years ago, I might have rated it higher.then again, since I'm sure I'd found Tamora Pierce, at least, quite some time ago, maybe not. Kaala must choose between safety for herself, her friends, and their human companions and the survival of her pack-and perhaps all of wolf and humankind. But to do so she must solve the great paradox of wolfkind: though wolves must always be with humans, humans cannot abide the presence of wolves, and every time the two come together, war ensues. When war between humans and wolves threatens, Kaala learns that she is the last in a long line of wolves charged with keeping watch over humans in order to prevent them from losing touch with nature and thus destroying the world. Kaala and her young packmates begin hunting and playing with humans-risking expulsion from their pack and banishment from their home in the Wide Valley. But her world is turned upside down when she rescues a human girl from drowning. An outcast after her mother is exiled, Kaala struggles to earn her place in her pack. Set 14,000 years ago in what is now Southern Europe, Promise of the Wolves is told from the point of view of Kaala, a young wolf born of a forbidden, mixed-blood litter.

The first in The Wolf Chronicles trilogy, brilliantly weaving together original research, lovable characters and a dynamic, thoroughly engaging plot, Promise of the Wolves is a historical adventure story in the tradition of Clan of the Cave Bear and Watership Down.

Promise of the Wolves by Dorothy Hearst