I was recently part of a discussion of favorite mythical creatures. While I’m often drawn to dragons, another true answer is that I’ll listen to or read any well-told tale about any mythical creature. Benji Zeb is a Ravenous Werewolf is a contemporary story of magic, Judaism, first crushes and anxiety, while The Selkie’s Daughter is a historical story of identity, family, and survival.

Benji Zeb is a
Ravenous Werewolf

by Deke Moulton

Tundra Books, 2024

ISBN 978-1774880524

Read from an ARC.

Things Benji Zeb loves: Being a werewolf, and the joy of being in his wolf form. The beauty of Judaism. His community in the werewolf kibbutz and wolf sanctuary where he and his family live. When his classmate Caleb used to smile at him and be friendly with him. Also the particular shade of amber that Caleb’s eyes are.

Things Benji Zeb worries about: Not being able to memorize his parsha before his bar mitzvah. Letting down his family by doing anything about his bar mitzvah wrong. Caleb bullying him, especially in gym class. Possibly being gay. Accidentally shifting into his werewolf form (no full moon required.) Why Caleb’s stepfather is driving around the wolf sanctuary with a gun. The increasing hostility in town towards the wolf sanctuary.

I really loved Deke Moultons Don’t Want to Be Your Monster last year, so I was thrilled to snag an ARC of this at PLA this March. I was immediately sucked into Benji’s intimate first-person narrative, which clearly reveals the anxious circles his mind turns in even as they don’t bog the story down. And Benji has a lot going on, all of it complicated by the way his words and thoughts freeze up in front of everyone, even his family. As you might guess by it being set in a kibbutz, Judaism is an important part of Benji’s life, the music and rituals a great comfort to him, even though he struggles to prioritize his bar mitzvah prep as he feels that their existence in the community is under threat – the ranchers and the wolf sanctuary had to compete to be the focus of the community fair. The wolf sanctuary won, but now the ranchers feel that their best option is to attack the sanctuary.

When Caleb, the stepson of the chief opponent, turns up at the sanctuary, Benji has a lot of educating to do – both about werewolves (the myths are mostly wrong) and about Judaism (ditto) – even as Caleb, a Chinese-American, knows a lot about the historical and current discrimination against Asian-Americans. There’s a lot, but it worked for me as it’s perfectly relevant to the story and the tensions between the differet elements in the community feel all too real. The budding feelings between Benji and Caleb are a sweet counterpoint to the tensions, and the resolution of the story is absolutely perfect.

I went looking through my archives to find other books about werewolves and was a surprised not to find any other middle grade books about werewolves. For older readers, though, Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver trilogy and Gail Carriger’s long-running series beginning with Soulless remain classics. If you have any favorites, be sure to let me know in the comments!

The Selkie’s Daughter
by Linda Crotta Brennan

Holiday House, 2024

ISBN 9780823454396

Read from a library copy.

Brigit lives with her parents and younger brother in a tiny isolated cottage, separated even from the rest of the tiny fishing village in 19th-century Nova Scotia. They’re surrounded by the beauty of the sea, and the inside of the cottage is made beautiful with the ballads they sing and the tunes they play and dance to. But Brigit’s webbed fingers betray her family secret: her mother is a selkie. Brigit has always tried to hide this, regularly having the webbing cut and wearing extra-long sleeves to hide them. The book opens with a startlingly hard scene of Brigit’s aunt cutting the finger webbing apart, and there are other very hard things in the book, softened only slightly by the gentle retelling.

Then comes change: a new boy, Peter, whose white-blond hair reminds her of the stories of Finn MacCoul. Her cousin Margaret no longer letting Brigit push her away. A deadly diptheria outbreak. And Margaret’s father and older brothers hunting what they think are baby seals, but which are really baby selkies, bringing famine and storms to the village as the selkies enact their revenge.

With all of these events, good and bad, Brigit is drawn out of her isolation, pulled to stand up against cruelty and make friends for the first time in years, both among the humans and getting to know her selkie relatives for the first time. The story takes a while to build, but the language and scenery are beautiful, as is Brigit’s realization of her own power and the will to use it.

The only other middle-grade book with selkies I can recall is The Turning by Emily Whitman, though I also really enjoyed the adult duology beginning with The Golden City by J. Kathleen Cheney