In a story set deep in the wild winter wood, two hungry ravens fly in search of their next meal. A pack of wolves is on the hunt, too. Food is scarce, but, if they team up, the ravens and wolves just might be able to help each other. The ravens follow a pack of starving wolves on the hunt. The wolves come up empty handed ? and even lose one of their own in the chase ? but the ravens have better luck. The wolves hear the ravens cawing and investigate only to find an injured deer, the perfect meal! The wolves make the kill; the opportunistic ravens benefit, feasting alongside and after the wolves. 'The Wolf-Birds' takes an honest, unflinching view of survival in the wild, highlighting the fact that one animal's life helps many others live. Based on scientific data and anecdotal reports from Aboriginal hunters, the book explores the fascinating symbiotic relationship shared by wolves and ravens. Because ravens follow and scavenge food from wolves ? which scientists believe hints at an ecological relationship thousands of years old ? ravens have been dubbed ?wolf-birds.? An informational author's note at the back of the book explains more about this amazing animal behaviour. Lyrical, spare text and acrylic paint illustrations combine to give this picture book a elegant, stylized feel that completes this portrait of a multi-faceted symbiotic relationship. AGES: 5-8 AUTHOR: Willow Dawson is an illustrator and cartoonist working out of The RAID Studio in downtown Toronto. She illustrated 'The Big Green Book of the Big Blue Sea', a science book with an environmental message (with Helaine Becker). She is the creator of 'Hyena in Petticoats: The Story of Suffragette Nellie McClung' and 'Lila and Ecco's Do-It-Yourself Comics Clu'b, and she illustrated the award-winning graphic novel No Girls Allowed (with Susan Hughes). Dawson teaches Creating Comics and Graphic Novels at the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies. She also teaches sequential art and scriptwriting to youth across the city. In May of 2012, Dawson toured Prince Edward Island for TD Children's Book Week.
