Viper's Daughter: 7 (Wolf Brother)

Product Information

Born in Malawi to a Belgian mother and a father who ran the tiny ‘Nyasaland Times’, Michelle moved to the UK when she was three. She was brought up in Wimbledon and, following a Biochemistry Degree from Oxford University, she became a partner in a big City law firm. She gave up the City to follow her long-held dream of becoming a writer. Viper’s Daughter is set in the Stone Age, in the forests of the northern hemisphere, about Torak, a boy, Renn, a girl, and Wolf – a Wolf! This is the seventh book in a series of nine, I’ve read the whole book in about ⅔ of a day (it arrived yesterday!) I’d never planned to write another Wolf Brother book, but Torak, Renn and Wolf simply didn’t leave me. Also, fans of the books never stopped asking, “Please please can you write another one?” Then a few years ago I was in arctic Norway, trudging through the snow, when I saw the aurora borealis pointing north. That gave me such a strong idea for a story that I had to write it. As for reservations about returning to Torak’s world, I had none whatsoever, because I knew I had a great new story – and a stonkingly good villain. Equity between male and female is a surprising theme in the story. And for one character it is a story of emancipation and empowerment – an important storyline for children living in a modern society which still has some way to go before fairness reigns.

Valkyrie’s Ultimate: Skyward. As the name suggests, this ability allows Valkyrie to launch into the air, and then redeploy. The first time pressing Valk’s ultimate will prepare her for launch, after which her allies can join her, and the second time will start the launch. I love the series so much, it’s all about adventure, friendships, clans, demons and Soul Eaters! I love it because I see myself a bit in all of the main characters – loyal, fun, adventurous, wild and slightly stubborn! If you want to tie things together, you might make a piece of string. Torak and Renn would do this out of nettles (this is a piece I made earlier), or they could make a whole bag. This is a small one, this was made by Aborigines in Australia out of plant fibres, but you could make as big a one as you liked. Viper’s Daughter is an astoundingly rich, immersive and thrilling adventure that utterly gripped me from start to finish, skilfully drawing me into the Stone Age world with characters I adored, feared and feared for. This is a stunning masterpiece of powerful, evocative storytelling at its absolute best: it swept me into the world, enthralled me, emotionally drained me but, ultimately, left me wholly satisfied.”Renn had never felt so alone… This was no place for living creatures. It was the haunt of demons and ghosts. The UK Wolf Conservation Trust is no longer open to the public but at the time of writing Torak is alive and well and living a very contented life. If only he knew how inspirational that life has been! Great review Stacey, this is the first time I have heard or seen this book and it really looks and sounds like an amazing middle-grade book. I am really glad you fully enjoyed reading this book. Thank you so much for sharing your awesome post. In a quirky turn of serendipity which we discovered only last month, I have coincidentally met the actual wolf, Torak, who was named after Michelle’s Wolf Brother protagonist’s name! In 2007 I went on a photography day at the UK Wolf Conservation Trust where Torak the wolf is homed – a photograph of him even appeared in a Kids of the Wild’s blog I wrote in 2017 about a Cherokee wolf proverb. It’s a small world!

I was excited to see that the eighth book in the series will be published in 2021. Can you give us any clues about what’s going to happen? If you’ve read my recent list of brilliant adventure books for 8 to 12 year olds, you’ll know that we’re HUGE fans of Michelle Paver’s exhilarating six-book Wolf Brother/Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series (COAD). In COAD we watched Torak grow from a Stone-Age boy of 12 summers to the teen that he is when Viper’s Daughter is set, two years after the the end of the last book, Ghost Hunter. Wild wishes to you all for an unforgettable reading expedition into the ancient world of Torak, Wolf and Renn! Looking for something fun as a family? Enjoy storytime with our free online books and videos, play games, win prizes, test your knowledge in our book-themed quizzes, or even learn how to draw some of your favourite characters.The people in that part of outer Siberia, the Chukchi, were fascinating and gave me lots of ideas. Traditionally, they lived very harsh lives and gave their children incredibly rough upbringings. The children were not brought up by their parents, they were brought up by their aunts and their uncles – the idea being that parents wouldn’t punish you harshly enough. So these poor little boys had to toughen up by dragging walrus heads up and down hills. Why? Because the Chukchi lived on hunting walruses, which are incredibly dangerous when you’re hunting them, and so they had six men in a boat and they all had to obey the rules – which is why they had such harsh upbringings. As Caroline says, the ending of Viper’s Daughter is ‘very satisfying’. The story is complete for those who prefer a standalone tale yet leaves plenty of room for continuation in the next book.