Where Shayla Belongs

Shayla is a wolf pup who does not like to howl.

While her brothers and sisters wrestle and race and fill the Lamar Valley with their voices, Shayla would rather sit still and watch a beetle cross a log, or notice the way the light moves on the river. When they laugh at her wobbly howl and chant that she isn't a real wolf, Shayla slips out of the den one night to find a place where she fits.

Her search takes her across Yellowstone's northern range.

She meets a chickadee who becomes her first friend but lives in a nest she cannot reach. Rabbits whose laughter turns out to be the kind sort, and a burrow she is far too big to enter. A young black bear who climbs down from his tree instead of laughing at her, and shows her a secret patch of serviceberries. Beavers who are never unkind and never once stop working. A fox who loves quiet as much as she does - and would still rather be alone.

Then the river takes her.

Cold and frightened and out of ideas, Shayla lifts her face and howls - not because it is what wolves do, but because she needs someone to come. Her voice wobbles. It is not as loud as her brother's or as long as her sister's.

It carries anyway.

Her family have been searching all night. They hear her.

WHERE SHAYLA BELONGS is a story about a quiet child who learns that belonging does not require becoming someone else - and a family who learn that they never needed her to. It reframes the howl itself: not a demand to be heard, but a way of saying I am here, I need you.

WRITTEN TO BE READ ALOUD

Ten short chapters, one for each night of the week and a few to spare. Short declarative sentences, plain vocabulary, and emotional beats that are shown rather than explained. A five-year-old can follow it curled up beside an adult; a seven- or eight-year-old can read it alone.

A NOTE FOR ADULTS: Chapters Eight and Nine are best read together. Chapter Eight ends with Shayla clinging to a branch in fast water.

A REAL PLACE, REAL ANIMALS

The Lamar Valley is real, and so are the wolves who live there. They were returned to Yellowstone in 1995 after nearly seventy years without them. The bears really do climb down out of the trees. The steam really does rise from the ground all winter long, in a valley where the snow melts first.

Shayla and her family are imagined. Everything around them is not. The book identifies its animals accurately - mountain chickadee, American black bear, harlequin duck, serviceberry - and its landscape is the true rolling, eroded northern range rather than the alpine profile so often mistaken for it.

INSIDE THIS BOOK

Forty-three original pen-and-ink illustrations throughout. A closing note about the wolves of Yellowstone - their disappearance, their return, and why they howl. A map of the park for young readers who want to find where the story happens. Free printable activity pages available online.

FOR EDUCATORS AND LIBRARIANS

Supports discussion of temperament and difference, intent versus impact, apology and repair, and the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone. Suitable for read-aloud, guided reading, and independent reading across a wide ability range.

Book One of the Shayla the Wolf Stories.

Stacy Huddleston is the author of the Bean Basket Stories and of devotional nonfiction for women. She writes under the imprint of Bedrock Heritage Publishing.