The Wolf Mother (Mothers of Xsan)

Written by Hetxw'ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson)

Illustrated by Natasha Donovan

HighWater Press

978-1-55379-978-8

32 pp.

Ages 9-12

September 2021

The Mothers of Xsan series from Hetxw'ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson) and Natasha Donovan are a series of illustrated non-fiction books for middle-grade readers that examine one animal species in depth and with an Indigenous perspective. The Wolf Mother is the fifth volume in the series and focuses on the life of one wolf pup as she grows into a wolf mother and on the communities and ecosystem in which she thrives.

From The Wolf Mother by Hetxw'ms Gyetxw, illus. by Natasha Donovan

Beginning in the Gitxsan Moon of Lasa'Yan'tsa, The Wolf Mother's story opens with a description of the young wolf pups' capabilities and needs, focusing on a small charcoal black female.

The smallest of the pups is a charcoal black female, who has a tiny strip of white fur above her left eye. The black wolf already has a sense of smell 100 times better than any human, and even domesticated dogs cannot compare to her ability. Right now, she only has a nose for mother’s milk. Her ears grow larger every day, her eyesight gets sharper, and her legs stretch farther, and she is beginning to desire to explore beyond their cozy den among the pines.

From The Wolf Mother by Hetxw'ms Gyetxw, illus. by Natasha Donovan

With each new lunar cycle (the list of Gitxsan Moons is appended to the story), the grey wolves develop new skills, hunting prey like gax, the rabbit, and venturing further and further into their habitat.

From The Wolf Mother by Hetxw'ms Gyetxw, illus. by Natasha Donovan

After two years, the small black pup is now ready to become Nox Gibuu, the Wolf Mother. She sets out alone, eventually welcomed by another pack and bonding with a young male, ready to grow her own family.

From The Wolf Mother by Hetxw'ms Gyetxw, illus. by Natasha Donovan

As she grows that family, the Wolf Mother along with her pack become a community of caregivers, each with a role to play with respect to the young and their environment, keeping all in balance and thriving.

From The Wolf Mother by Hetxw'ms Gyetxw, illus. by Natasha Donovan

Though the text of The Wolf Mother reads as a story, rather than organized as much children's non-fiction, the wealth of its information about the grey wolf's biology and behaviour cannot be disputed. By telling it as a natural history story, Hetxw'ms Gyetxw invites us to witness the wonders of these animals and their communities and place in the world. There are still several non-fiction features, like the purple-boxed footnotes to identify new words like "natal" and "domesticated" and a map of the Gitxsan Nation of their unceded territories of the Northwest Interior of British Columbia, but that information sweetens the story rather than impedes it. There is no distraction from the Wolf Mother's story from pup to mother and leader.

Natasha Donovan's artwork continues that gentle storytelling, giving us the real depictions of the animals and the land, appropriate for a non-fiction book, but also embedding elements of West Coast art. From a stylized moon or a wolf, Natasha Donovan reminds young readers of the First Nations' framework for the story, brightening that realism with a sense of connection between the grey wolves and the land and its people.

The Mothers of Xsan series is a popular one for children, especially for those who love non-fiction and are too often told they're not reading if they're not reading fiction. With this series, they are reading, they're learning about an animal and its place in a bigger world and they're gaining an appreciation for the richness of a First Nation in terms of its community and customs. As the newest addition to that series, The Wolf Mother echoes that storytelling, taking the book beyond information book, and treating readers to textual and graphic art that is dramatic both in its content and heart.

The Sockeye Mother (2018)

The Grizzly Mother (2019)

The Eagle Mother (2020)

The Frog Mother (2021)

The Wolf Mother (2021)