You may have heard that our modern pet dogs are descended from wolves, but have you ever wondered how this came to be? From Wolf to Woof! gives readers a look into how this may have happened. Written and illustrated by Hudson Talbott, this book tells a story about the first time a wolf and a boy made friends with each other.
From sharing leftover scraps with each other, to full-on cooperation with each other, Talbott presents a lightly fictionalized account of how dogs and humans came to rely on each other. This demonstrates the process of domestication, and how it not only changed some wolves into dogs, but influenced the development of our own human culture and society as well.
While not a particular emphasis of the book, I did appreciate how Talbott clearly portrays the concept of evolutionary divergence, where two species split from a common ancestor. Not all wolves became dogs, after all; different populations went their own way, with some remaining wild rather than being replaced by dogs.
From Wolf to Woof! is well-written and pleasantly illustrated. While the tale it tells about domestication is perhaps a bit simplistic, it’s an appropriate characterization of the process for the target audience. Fans of both dogs and Ice Age animals will doubtless enjoy this book. It earns my Dino Dad Stomp of Approval.
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