Talk:Wolf: The Journey Home/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: María (habla conmigo) 17:37, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

Hello, I will be reviewing this article for Good Article status. For the most part, I think it's in fairly good shape; it's a shame that there aren't more sources available, but I trust that all reputable databases and the like have been consulted? Most of my concerns deal with the article's prose and clarity, although I have suggested perhaps splitting one of the sections and playing with info arrangement somewhat; all of these are suggestions, however. Here is how I feel the article stands against the criteria:

1. Well-written: For the most part; see issues below.
2. Factually accurate and verifiable: Yes.
3. Broad in its coverage: Yes.
4. Neutral: Yes.
5. Stable: Yes.
6. Illustrated, if possible, by images: Yes; the one image has a suitable rationale and is tagged correctly.

Lead

• is a 1997 American fictional young-adult novel written by 'Asta Bowen. -- I'm not sure I've ever seen a book referred to with a nationality, but correct me if this is a new MOS development; otherwise, I believe it makes more sense to say "written by American author 'Asta Bowen."
• Based on true accounts of the relocation of the Pleasant Valley, Montana wolf pack in 1989, the novel traces the life of a female alpha wolf named Marta after the forced relocation of her pack to a strange new area. -- Redundancy issues: "of the relocation... after the forced relocation". After her pack is moved to a strange area? No need to say the area is strange and new.
• Terrified and confused, Marta abandons her pack and flees, journeying in search of her home, eventually arriving in Ninemile Valley, where she finds a new mate with whom she starts a new pack. -- Terrified and confused? You could also split this up with a semicolon as such: "journeying in search of her home; she eventually arrives in Ninemile Valley, where..."
• She was prompted to write the story of the relocated wolves after reading about wolves' true lives in her local paper, and becoming outraged at the continued poaching of wolves in the protected areas of Ninemile Valley. -- Watch the repetition of "wolves" in this paragraph. I'm not sure what is meant by "true lives" here; could this be simplified to say that she became outraged after reading about the continued poaching... etc.?
• Recounting the fates of the wolves from the novel, she expresses hope in the ideals behind efforts to restore wolf populations. -- It's confusing to switch to present tense here, especially when it's not known when/where she expressed such hopes. Was this in the epilogue? If so, state it, but use past tense.
• Another also praises the story's highlighting of the difficulties in wolf relocation programs. -- Again change to past tense, since that is how reviewers in the previous sentence are described.

Development and publication

• Again, correct me if the MOS has changed, but I'm customized to seeing the background/development information before the plot, which is followed by publication and reception. If there's more information to be had, maybe this section can be split into two? Since most of this section deals with what was written in the book's epilogue, it isn't exactly "development".
• As in the novel, the alpha male was killed, mistaken as a dog by a rancher -- the proper wording, I believe, is for a dog.

Reception

• Publishers Weekly's Sybil Steinberg called it a "powerful first novel" and a "genuinely eye-opening tale". She praises Bowen... -- Keep to past tense, as above.
• David Seideman of the Chicago Tribune considers... -- Same as above.

I made some minor fixes to the "plot" section, which reads fairly well. With a little polishing, I think this will be a great addition to GA; once the above concerns have been adequately addressed, I'll go ahead and promote it. Let me know if you have any questions and concerns. María (habla conmigo) 17:37, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I've scoured every reliable source that I could through multiple university journal and book databases. Every fictional article I've worked refers to the work's "nationality" rather than the author's, as that is more factually accurate as an author can be from one nation and publish a book in another. For the section order, it follows the proper order per the MoS and what is done with other fictional media topics (films, television, manga, etc)), though topical MoS problems are generally not something covered in a GAN. I kept development/publication together because it was all the sourcable info available and I didn't want to ahve three single paragraph sections :-) I tried to address the issue with its having epilogue content. Will that work? I think I've fixed all the wording/tense issues? -- AnmaFinotera (talk · contribs) 18:45, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

though topical MoS problems are generally not something covered in a GAN -- I think you'll find that, after 8 FAs, I'm generally more detail-orientated than the average "This article is great! Pass!" GA reviewer. ;) Re: section ordering, I was actually pulling from Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels/Style guidelines, which I'd forgotten to link above. I now see that, like films and such, however, plot is also listed first. Mea culpa. As for the rest, I'll have another look at the article shortly. María (habla conmigo) 18:57, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

I don't mind, but I got fussed at when doing GANs for pointing out MoS issues, so I stopped doing it. Some folks ilke it, some seem to take it as a personal affront :-( I didn't realize Novels had separate style guidelines. I generally go by Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels/ArticleTemplate, which is the more up to date one. The text MoS should probably be updated accordingly. -- AnmaFinotera (talk · contribs) 19:29, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

Sorry for the wait! You've made some great changes, so I'm happy to promote this article to GA-status. Congrats! No worries about the Novels WP thing; it's been a while since I've looked into it myself, and I hope you didn't mind my pickiness too much. :) Let me know if there's anything else needed, María (habla conmigo) 18:00, 13 November 2009 (UTC)

Not at all, thanks, it helped me find a new page :-D Much appreciated. -- AnmaFinotera (talk · contribs) 18:23, 13 November 2009 (UTC)