I’m trying to track down a couple books I read in seventh grade, and I was hoping you and the readers could help.

The first was about a twelve-year-old girl living on the Canadian prairies who slowly realizes that her mother is a werewolf. A real one, too, that terrorizes livestock. No romanticized bullshit. Her mom randomly showed up in town one winter night, barefoot and disoriented, thirteen years ago. Suddenly, the townspeople start hearing wolves howling outside at night, and the girl’s mother keeps coming home with frostbite, chilblains, and wounds where farmers have hit or shot at her while defending their animals. In particular I remember the mother mauling a horse named Blackie.

The girl pieces together what is going on before anyone else does, and tries to keep her mother’s secret. Eventually the whole town figures it out, and the mother either disappears with the wolves or gets shot. The rest of the family become outcasts, especially the girl and her little brother, because the townspeople think they might grow up to be werewolves. Their father takes them away to live in a city, maybe Edmonton or Calgary. As they are traveling across the prairies on the train, the girl realizes that the townspeople are right, and she is also cursed with being a werewolf. And in this book, it’s a curse. It’s not sexy. 

The second one I only remember really vaguely. There are two kids, a girl and a boy, whose fathers have some sort of ongoing feud. I think the kids were born on the same night or something. So of course they become friends. One lives in fortress. The other one lives in the woods, possibly with bandits. The girl was pretty badass and self sufficient. They are sort of thrown together on some kind of adventure, and face all sorts of dangers together, including harpies. (I think). And of course they also end the feud. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! 

Leah

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