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Smriti Gupta
THE WILD PACK by Andre Marx and Boris Pfeiffer Pengiun, 2017, 122 pp., 250
November 2017, volume 41, No 11

Hamlet the young wolf at the city Zoo has adapted to the routine life, being fed by the zoo keeper Knut, the crowds of visitors and the open skies covering his cage. His only joy is his best friend and mountain of fur—Barnabas the gorilla. Hamlet’s peace is suddenly shaken when he smells greed emanating from Zoo Director Mueller who fancies Hamlet’s fur for his daughter’s 16th birthday present. Hamlet must do something but is anything possible? Mueller has a reputation of being cold towards animals and has already killed a polar bear and a tiger as gifts for his other two daughters. Hamlet sees himself lost to his fate hanging on Mueller’s wall the next day. Barnabas even though being captured from Africa and placed in the zoo, is spirited. He desperately wants to free his friend. He makes a plan to outwit Mueller and advises Hamlet to go live with the Wild Pack, a group of animals who live secretly away from humans in the city. Barnabas shows Hamlet that this is not only about escaping the Zoo, it is about having freedom like in the wild. Barnabas succeeds in outwitting Mueller with gummy bears, a golden watch and play darts. Hamlet is free! He escapes and promises to free his best friend.

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