Dorothy Hinshaw Patent explains how essential wolves are within the ecosystem of Yellowstone National Park. Through a brief history of the park and a concise summary of its natural wonders, the reader learns about the wolves' place in the food chain. This book, with its stunning color photographs, shows us how every organism is connected.

There's a lot of scientific knowledge that is conveyed through this book. I think this abundance would otherwise be overwhelming but in this book it is not. We are deeply connected with the content because the author's delivery is well-crafted and the images support our understanding. I feel like the uptake for students must be high because this book creates engagement. ( )

This book is about how introducing wolves into the ecosystem in Yellowstone helped the species in the park come back and flourish. This is a good informational text for the classroom that teaches about ecosystems and the effects that one species can have.

This nonfiction photography book discusses the critical ecological role of wolves within the Greater Yellowstone Network, and demonstrates the unpredictable and unexpected consequences of human tampering with natural systems. In detail, the book demonstrates the ways that the massacre and removal of wolves affected the populations of other species, then how these changes affected habitats, landscapes, and other species in a cascade effect. The book also carries a strong message for supporting habitat conservation in order to protect and support wildlife, and for promoting expansive intact land areas and habitat corridors for wide-ranging species, such as wolves. The book contains resources for wolf conservation.

A second or third grade class could, by using the animals and plants mentioned in the book, correctly label a food chain of the animals in Yellow Stone National Park. For example, the wolf would be at the top, then deer and elk below the wolf, then the wild grasses/vegetation at the bottom. Students could also particpate in a drama/game where certain students are assigned to be wolves and the rest are deer and elk. The number of wolves in the first round will be large at first, meaning that after tagging the deer and elk over the course of a couple minutes, there should be only a few herbivores left. The next round will include a dramatic decrease in the number of wolves, making most students deer or elk. This will result in many herbivores left, giving the students a physical representation of what happened when the number of wolves decreased. A 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade class could compare and contrast the park when the wolves were absent to the enviroment now after years of restoration by using the photos/ information in the book combined with online photos and research. The students could then write down what they learned and share with the class to help the teacher create a class compare and contrast chart on the board.

This informational text describes the lost ecosystem balance that occurred in Yellowstone National Park after the wolves were all killed off. The wolves were reintroduced in 1995 and since then the park has begun to rebalance. Through photographs and text the book explains the purpose the establishing Yellowstone National Park, the misunderstanding regarding the role of wolves in the food chain, the consequences of their absence for decades, the controversy surrounding reintroducing them to the area and the results so far of their reintroduction.