Woodsong is a very realistic account of a man and his experiences in the wilderness. It shows the violence of nature, the killing of animals, and the terror of animals who are being hunted by other animals. Unlike a wildlife film that cuts away before the wolf kills the deer or a book that provides a clinical or technical description, Paulsen describes the scene. As he says in chapter one of the book, "Wolves do not kill clean." He then proceeds to describe, in detail, the "slow, ripping, terrible death" and the "pulling and jerking and tearing" that happens while the deer is "still on her feet, still alive."

Paulsen provides a picture in words of the brutal viciousness of wild creatures. In addition, he describes the extreme cold, the hallucinations, the horrible rumors of disaster, and the real dangers of the Iditarod and of the...