“Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble was brewing, not alone for himself, but for every tidewater dog, strong of muscle and with warm, long hair from Puget Sound to San Diego.”

From Jack London’s The Call of the Wild.

Buck the dog is a 4-year-old St. Bernard mix living in late 1890’s California on Judge Miller’s huge mansion and gorgeous estate.  However, the Gold Rush in Alaska creates a major need for dogs to help the fortune-seeking masses reach the depths of the isolated landscape.  When Buck is kidnapped and sold by a gardener that works for Judge Miller, he is taken away on a journey that begins with a man in a red sweater, breaking his spirit and sells him off to become a sled dog in Alaska.  Buck quickly learns the danger of his new home, including animal savagery, dangerous men, and life-or-death weather.  As part of a sled team, Buck finds himself in a power struggle with the lead dog, that releases a part of him that that had been long forgotten to the house pet.  Buck journeys from working as an exploration dog to part of a mail delivery team until the overworked, exhausted dog is purchased by a couple of greatly inexperienced gold rushers whose disregard for veteran advice causes the deaths of many dogs on the team.  Luckily, a Yukon veteran named John Thorton takes Buck from them before any danger becomes Buck.  Living with Thornton, Buck finds love, purpose, and respect with Thornton in an adventure that follows the clever dog from pet to perfectly in tune with the call of the wild.

London’s classic novel is written so well that it is pulse-pounding regardless of the great distance between writer and reader.  This classic is captivating, but also extremely intense and violent at times; while directed at younger readers, this book will be too much for some child (or even adult) readers.  The Call of the Wild is a book unlike any other that will have readers captivated by the story until the very end.