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Children's Fiction General

Panther

by (author) Roderick Haig-Brown

Publisher
Harbour Publishing Co. Ltd.
Initial publish date
Feb 2007
Category
General, General, General
Recommended Age
12 to 18
Recommended Grade
7
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781550173413
    Publish Date
    Feb 2007
    List Price
    $14.95

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

"Nothing in nature, so long as it is honestly observed and honestly described, can harm the mind of a child. Almost all the ills of the human race may be traced to the fact that it has strayed too far from nature and knows too little of the natural order of things . . . let them read and understand the ways of animals and birds, of water and wind and earth; for these things are pure and true and unspoiled."
--Roderick Haig-Brown

Ki-Yu roams the full length of Vancouver Island's Wapiti Valley without fear, hunting deer, visiting females, and using his cunning and strength to evade famed cougar hunter David Milton with his shotgun and barking dogs. Evocative of Jack London's White Fang, Panther captures the harsh reality of the Vancouver Island setting with Haig-Brown's skillful, unadorned prose, telling an enthralling-- and often bloody--story of elusive wild cats and the timber wolves, bears, blacktail deer and humans who are all led by instinct as they struggle for survival in an unforgiving wilderness.

About the author

Roderick L. Haig-Brown (1908-1976) was a Canadian writer, magistrate and conservationist. A prolific writer, he is the author of twenty-eight books and hundreds of articles, essays and poems. Some of the titles include Saltwater Summer (Governor General Award Winner, 1948), A River Never Sleeps, and Fisherman's Summer. In recognition of his contribution to Canadian environmental literature, the Haig-Brown name has been gifted to a national park near Kamloops, a Canada Council sponsored writer-in-residence retreat near Campbell River, and a mountain on Vancouver Island.

Roderick Haig-Brown's profile page

Librarian Reviews

Panther

In Panther, a reprint of the 1946 classic, the reader is taken into the world of Vancouver Island cougars around the Wapiti Valley. The author captivatingly immerses readers in a world strange, cruel and compelling. The main story is of Ki-yu the cougar and one is able to see and sense how the creature thinks and what is involved in the pursuit of survival. The story of the inevitable confrontation and conflict of this creature in the wild with humans—in the person of David Milton, a cougar hunter—is crafted and told with great care, skill and thought.

Caution: Many references to the killing of animals are included, but not gratuitously.

Source: The Association of Book Publishers of BC. BC Books for BC Schools. 2007-2008.

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