About the Author

FARLEY MOWAT's many books, including NEVER CRY WOLF, SEA OF SLAUGHTER, and BORN NAKED, have delighted young and old alike. They have sold over fourteen million copies worldwide and have been published in fifty-two languages. He lives in Port Hope, Ontario, with his wife, the writer, Claire Mowat.

Reviews

The biologist who authored the classic Never Cry Wolf reflects on his youth.

YA-Mowat begins with a well-written account of his first 12 years spent in various towns in southern Ontario, where his father served as a public librarian. Then they moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, the setting for most of this book. There young Farley roamed the Canadian prairies, birding, hiking, camping, and tracking. His enthusiasm and love of the land and its animals are infectious; his knowledge, particularly of birds, is impressive. The growth of a young man is dealt with sensitively, and some of the incidents included are quite funny. The author uses his own childhood poems, letters, articles, and journal entries as well as those of others, namely his father and a maid, effectively. This is a book for any YA with even a passing interest in the outdoors and animals. Mowat's ability to put into perspective his sexual and social rites of passage is a talent that few writers can equal.-Clodagh Lee, Pohick Regional Library, Burke, VA

Now in his 70s, Mowat ( Never Cry Wolf ) looks back on the happiest years of his life in this delightful memoir of an idyllic boyhood. He has previously described his father, Angus, as the original hippie; his mother, Helen, was more sedate but reluctantly supported her husband's schemes. Growing up in rural Ontario and on the Saskatchewan prairies, Mowat had unlimited freedom to explore the countryside. He gives an entertaining account of the family's boating misadventures, of their move to Saskatoon with a home-built trailer, of a motor trip to Canada's west coast. Entranced by the prairie and its wildlife, Mowat spent most of his time there--often with Mutt, the much loved pet featured in The Dog Who Wouldn't Be. Photos. (Apr.)