White Fang

by Malvina G. Vogel (Adapter), Jack London, Ross Vera (Illustrator)

The world's best-loved children's stories set in large type for easy reading.
-- Over 100 illustrations in each book

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Adventure, Childrens, Dogs, Historical Fiction, Middle Grade

240 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Francesca Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am typically not a fan of the classics because the grammar, vocabulary, and writing style are beyond my understanding and usually leave me very bored. However, picking up a Great Illustrated Classics version helped tremendously with comprehension and enjoyment! I feel like I definitely need to brush up on more classics this way!

[Lou Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the best Great Illustrated Classic I have ever read.

This book is about a wolf named White Fang and how he survives brutal I mean brutal things that he has to face to survive

This book was absolutely amazing, I love the writing and I also love the story. I will admit it is kind of a bit different from the movie, White Fang. If y'all want to check out that movie, it is super good in my opinion.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

My youngest loved wolves, so I got him this for a birthday present. We read it together, with his big brother, before bed. At first, the harsh reality of life in the wild caused a little heartache, but it was also fascinating to see life from White Fang's perspective.

Once White Fang is adopted by Wheedon Scott, the book took a much happier turn. We absolutely loved the ending.

[Wes Flease · Rating 5 out of 5]

Personal Response: I think this book was very interesting. The book had lots of plot twist. The dog narrates the book with its thoughts. I think that makes the book interesting because it's different than what we are used to. The author did a great job of painting a good picture in my head.

Plot Summary: White Fang was a pup of a dog and wolf. White Fang and his mother lived in the wild. They were split up by an Indian tribe and never saw each other again. White Fang was sold to a mean man. The wolf was abused, and he was forced to dog fight. He was sold again to another man. He was nice to White Fang.

Recommendation: I would recommend this book to all age groups. People who have a strong interest in dogs would like this book. This book has a lot of plot twist, so I would recommend it to people who like change.

Characterization: White Fang started out as a pup. He was taught how to hunt and catch his own food. White Fang learned how to defend himself against predators. White Fang became a mean dog after all the fighting. He soon became loving again to his owner.

[Haili · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story line of this story is about a part wolf part dog named White Fang who overcomes his weaknesses while trying to survive in the frozen frontier of the Yukon. As White Fang being the main character, he was an orphan cub who gets sold to one person to the other until he finds a person who will love him and becomes a very crucial character to White Fang. This book is very interesting because of the story line and because of all the hardships White Fang has to go through until reaching his goal of finding a true friend who will love him. In this book not only does the author use really great adjectives ,but it also paints a picture in your mind. Whether being depressing or humorous this book really explores the tragedies of White Fang which always grabs my attention and makes it feel like your living in the book. Some of my favorite points in the book is how well White Fang adapts to his changes by adapting negatively or positively. One of the most major themes is when a person named Weedon Scott appears. Then and only then can White Fang experience what true happiness, compassion, love, and loyalty feels like. This book appeared to be very emotional to me when White Fang was abandoned or beaten. There's no way you can read this book and not shed some tears on the pages. Although this book can be a tear dripper, it has some really amazing points and I assure you that if the book starts to get a little boring it'll pick back up. I would definitely recommend this book. :D

[Josie]

I'm not sure how to rate this book so I'm not going to. My seven year old would give it 5 stars though. She devoured this book! And that's saying something because I've had a hard time finding books that interest her and that she will sit and read on her own. She loves wolves and dogs though, so when my husband pulled out his old set of illustrated classics from his childhood, she picked this one and she was hooked from page one. She read the whole thing in a couple days and has already started reading it again and is almost half way through.
I have never read the actual book by Jack London, and after reading this, I'm not sure I want to. Even for a children's book, this was quite violent. It is the story of a 3/4 wolf, 1/4 dog and the extremely harsh treatment he receives, both from other animals in the wild as well as humans when he finds the human world. It really was a pretty depressing book, but ends well. I'm just glad my seven year old found a book to love.

[Makenna stull · Rating 5 out of 5]

White Fang ( Great Illustrated Classics) is a classic re-told for children. White Fang is about a half-wolf, half-dog surviving in Alaska. The purpose of the book is to show loyalty. This book shows illustrations to help younger readers understand the book easier. I enjoyed it and liked that I could read this classic without reading the full version (the tiny print on the full version hurts my eyes.) I recommend this book to children and adults who want an easier read but still be able to read something they like.

[Aljeron2010 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A classic re-told for children, White Fang is about a half-wolf half-dog surviving in Alaska. The purpose of the book is to show loyalty. This book has illustrations to help younger readers understand the book. I enjoyed it and liked that I could read this classic without reading the full version (the tiny print on full versions hurts my eyes.)

[Alana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is one of the better reasons I have for why I talk to my pets. Jack London is certainly opinionated when it comes to society, but I have to admit that he does bring up some excellent points... albeit unpleasant at times.

[Kimberly Larreta · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was about a dog that is half wolf gets beat till he bleeds. He has a new owner and they show him how to not growl at people and to not fight with other dogs. He has kids with his new owners other dog and they lived happily. I would recommend this book to people who like dogs.

[Paxton · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a wolf, not that there are one or two, but there was a pack. Did i confuse you yet? Anyway, this wolf went and got a bad owner, ended up in a fighting ring, and got better owners and ended up in calafornia. Two more words to make the reveiw ofical, Igamadoofus Bookaflok.

[Ashlynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is AWESOME! I have loved this book ever since 2nd grade. It is a fast and easy read for me. It is super easy to keep up with and it is a book that you will never get sick of.

[Gianna Gaspard · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked how the book was full of different adventures.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! Looking forward to reading the full version.

[Bailey Recker]

Bailey recker
Mrs.Schwemer
Eng room 202
January 11th,2022
The mysterious white fang By Bailey recker
White Fang is a novel by major American author, Jack London. The novel's themes include the threat of death, salvation, and the mutability of human nature. The point of view throughout the novel is third-person, omniscient. The novel is set in the Yukon region of Canada. It opens to two fatigued mushers Bill and Henry struggling to return to the nearest town so that their dead friend, whose coffin is strapped to a sled they’re dragging through the snow, maybe buried. They hear a group of wolves approaching and attempt to move faster.
As they mush through the mountainous and snowy landscape, a she-wolf captures the attention of various male sled dogs. She successfully draws them away from Bill and Henry, and when the sled dog is far away from the domesticated pack, the wolves surround the dog and kill him. This occurs so frequently that Bill and Henry lose their entire pack. Fed up, Bill tries to kill the wolf with his rifle and the few bullets he has left, but he misses and is eaten. Henry stays alive by maintaining a fire and waiting for another dogsled crew to pass him; he is rescued.
The reader learns that wolves One Eye and Kiche are the parents of White Fang. Kiche used to be a domesticated dog but returned to the wild. Unfortunately, one day he is killed by a lynx who tried to steal the family’s food. Kiche later hunts the lynx down and murders her, she also murders her cubs and feeds them to her own children.
As a wild animal, White Fang goes through the world with evil intent: he is only interested in people or animals if they can be prey. If not, he ignores them. This instinct has allowed him to survive while all his other siblings die because of a famine. Eventually, White Fang moves away from his home pack. He is captured one day by Gray Beaver. The Native American man recognizes Kiche as his brother’s former dog and takes care of the pack during the famine. While under Grey Beaver's care, White Fang is constantly harassed by his fellow dogs; most of whom are domesticated and who regard White Fang as more wolf than dog and ostracize him as a result. This terrible environment makes White Fang bitter toward the world. It only gets worse when Kiche is sold and the two are separated. White Fang’s hate increases when he is passed onto another owner. The irascible Beauty Smith, who makes a living as a dogfighter. Despite the nickname, Beauty Smith is a terrible man. Gray Beaver only sold White Fang to him because he was drunk. Beauty Smith doesn’t care if his dogs live or die, so long as he makes money. Because he doesn’t care about White Fang, one day he pits him up against a larger, more experienced dog named Cherokee that White Fang cannot beat. Indeed, this bulldog is so rough and vicious that White Fang nearly dies. As White Fang is on the verge of death, Weedon Scott, a nice man from California interferes with the match and saves him. A young, wealthy gold prospector, Scott buys White Fang from Beauty Smith then and there. After nursing his wounds, the two travel to California. Once they get to California they meet Weedon Scott family it takes him time to adjust but he'll you eventually get comfortable with the family and a guy breaks into his house and White Fang was already in there sleeping in White Fang attacked the guy that was trying to shoot him but White Fang finally killed him. when his family rushed downstairs White Fang was very injured so they call a vet he has three broken ribs a broken leg and it takes him about 4 months to recover. Then When he is fully healed she goes outside to learn to walk again and he sees the collie with baby Puppies and they live happily ever after THE END.

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of Jack London's most painful stories to me and no it isn't just since of the amount of bad publicity first of all put onto wolves but also the fact that it captures mankind at their worst. The original book is violent, bloody and cruel while it is no surprise how White Fang turned out before meeting his love-master.

Malvina Vogel did an okay job on adapting this particular version but to me it felt quite diminished. for it was really sanitized. It takes out the whole beginning part where the pack are hunting the two men for days and the reason they are out there in the first place has also been removed although if you look at one of the illustrations there is a suggestion of that dead body on the sled. Due to they removed the whole tracking and conversation between the first two men, Kiche has been provided with her civilized name the whole time instead of the She-Wolf moniker that she is first known as. This is quite disappointing to me since she isn't even living as Kiche in the first part. And at the same time the book is really trimmed as well in other details such as the younger male wolf who challenged One Eye and the ensuing fight between the two to win She-Wolf as a mate.

Otherwise the essence of the story is kept for the reader who has never read White Fang. As a result the reader still gets to see what White Fang had to deal with as a pup growing up in the wilderness, his introduction to the man-animals, his introduction to the need of surviving from other dogs who bully him and also his slow change of owners. It is the latter portion of the book that is the most important to the reader for it makes this book quite resemble Black Beauty as Beauty compared the different types of horse masters that are out there in the world.

The reason why I gave this book such a lower star rating than I did the original is given to the illustrations themselves. The illustrations resemble all the illustrations for this collection of Classics, which are the most simplistic black-and-white type with no color. Unfortunately it is the details that threw me off. The gray White Fang is shown as black when compared to his siblings to differentiate the wolfish pup from his more dog-like siblings. And at the same time once he gets older he is drawn to resemble more like a husky dog instead of the wolf that he is said to be.

Other illustration discrepancies are the portrayal of the lynx as she isn't lynx-like while missing the distinctive face ruff and her tail is too long. At the same time the young wolves are shown as adult size as they are in their den although they weren't old enough to leave the confines thus would have been much smaller and the Indian dogs were more shown as short haired hounds instead of native canines.

Although I appreciate the idea behind Great Illustrated Classics I have to say that this is one of the ones I have read that was more of a disappointment than otherwise. If you are into adventurous stories and facing the survival of the wild I would most definitely recommend to read the whole original version instead of this trimmed version as it has way more to offer.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a truly spectacular book. The idea in general is genius buy having the story be told though the eyes of a dog this i believe spawned the whole genre of books told though the perspective of an animal. My favorite characters is white fang. The reason this is because when you see it though his eyes and the way he thinks it makes me feel connected to him and like im living the story. Even though he had a tough life i was really glad he ended up with a happy ending. My least favorite characters is beauty smith because of how good the wrote his character. when jack london wrote his character he really made me hate him as a good villain should make you feel and one moment in the story during beauty smith ownership of white fang almost had me in tears. Another thing that i really enjoyed about this book is the fact none of the owners were similar to the other and it caused white fang as a characters to learn and adapt to the different type of people he was around and when with each different owner and to get rid of old truth he new about the gods ( which is what he calls them) . Finally one connections that i made was the way jack london wrote it in comparison to his other book call of the wild. In call of the it goes from domestic to wild and in white fang its the other way around. Overall i would recommend this to pretty much anybody and i believe every body should get a chance to read this book.

[Jessika Hoover · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved these Great Illustrated Classics when I was a kid! Honestly, I think between these and Wishbone, it's no surprise that I grew up to be a fan of classic literature. This book was actually my husband's from childhood, but it's one that I hadn't read.

And I'll be honest--as an adult, this isn't the most riveting writing. It is a good story though, and Vogel made it very accessible for young readers. That's why I think these stories are so important. On one hand, they expose readers to these classic stories and on the other hand, they can spark an interest in classic literature by presenting worthwhile stories in a format that is less daunting.

Now I'm rambling. White Fang is a great story--both the original and this adaptation. I wouldn't call this a must-read for adults, but this would be a good read for children. Hey, it would be a good contender for some parent-child reading, too--whether reading aloud or reading in tandem with the original. Just a thought!

[Darcy · Rating 4 out of 5]

My kids wouldn't let me stop reading this to them. They're already familiar with the story, thanks to a movie version they've watched on Netflix, but they loved this book. They would give it five stars. I give it four just because I thought the illustrations could be more attractive. I really like these Illustrated Classics because they're helping to familiarize my children with great literature!

[Coreen Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great story but also written in a different time. It was shocking to start reading it out loud to the kids only to find out so many parts are now not tolerable in today’s society. The use of the word Indian, fighting, brutality, guns, the encouragement of drinking and gambling. I skipped over so many parts and completely regretted not previewing it before reading it. I only continued because they wanted me to. Not for kids.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this with Mara. It was fairly graphic for a kid’s book but Mara thought some parts were funny and cute.

The takeaway I have from this book: Sometimes people who act badly have been treated poorly or have had a hard life. But they can also change. When White Fang was met with love, he gave love and loyalty in return.

[Tangerine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I borrowed this book from my indigenous grandpa, the only other books he had were true stories about indigenous people's. I do think like the fact it's illustrated which makes it easier to understand. This book was boring in my opinion, I only really read it because I enjoyed the animated movie of it. Turns out the book is different lol. Pictures help my neurodivergent brain🙏🙏

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a 12 year old home schooler. All of the pictures in great illustrated classics help me understand the story. I've read Call of the Wild and White Fang. I like them both but White Fang has a little bit of a happier ending.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great read aloud for my 6, 5, and 3 year old. They liked this version better than the illustrated classic version from Barnes and Noble. My 6 year old said this book gave much more detail. Had just enough pictures to keep my 5 and 3 y/os engaged

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel as though 3 stars is the most you can give for a simplified version of a book

[Dylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shows how back then humans used to be cruel to animals.

[Weston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like how white fang is a powerful dog and he gets to different owners. And I like how they’re with like Indians.

[Patricia Kaniasty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good quick read. Loved the illustrations.

[Cameron Vodde · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is interesting and gripping quite like call of the wild. The story this book follows is from very different perspectives which I appreciate.

[enlam · Rating 2 out of 5]

made me sad now I don't read dog books