It might seem that the reissue of The Big Island by the University of Minnesota Press was somehow fated to be. Tvedten noted that when he asked Mech to read the book and provide a brief note regarding the current status of wolves and moose on Isle Royale, the 84-year-old biologist disclosed that May had contacted him back in the 1960s while he was studying wolves in Minnesota’s Superior National Forest early in his career. She had asked him to read the manuscript for accuracy.

“It was a long time since the first edition, and I hardly remembered that I’d read it,” he said, noting that he has read and reviewed many publications since then. “Once I got at it, I realized I’d seen this book many, many years earlier. I had finished the [first] Isle Royale study, but I was still working with wolves, in northern Minnesota instead of Isle Royale. It’s a very good book, and I was happy to write an update.”

“I really love the book,” Tvedten said. “The University of Minnesota Press has a longstanding tradition in terms of children’s publishing of doing books that are focused on natural history. This was a nice project, because it’s a reprint and a great story of nature, an excellent way to bring an ecological story to young readers. And even though it’s in Michigan, we would love to claim Isle Royale for Minnesota.”