lalaguse 's review for:

The Call of the Wild by Jack London
5.0

I thought I had read this book as a middle schooler, but I definitely did not. I am also surprised that this book is so commonly taught because there is a spectacular amount of violence in the story.

This book reminded me of Black Beauty because it discusses the inhumane working conditions for working animals. There's a mixture of cruel, incompetent, competent but on a deadline, and pet owners here. The book definitely makes the argument that when a dog is well-treated and taken care of under knowledgeable ownership that dogs can accomplish a lot more work efficiently and without it shortening the dog's life. I wonder if this book had as much impact on sled dogs working as Black Beauty had on treatment of horses.