Janet Lee Carpenter

At fifteen, Ripley is just an ordinary kid, in an ordinary world, with little hope of ever getting to be an ordinary teenager. He’s doing his best to cope with his mother’s loneliness and subsequent drinking after his father’s abandonment seven years before. The hands of fate seem to converge the day before his birthday—when Ripley meets Ms. Washington from the Child Protective Services agency and his adventure begins.
On the eve of his sixteenth birthday, his “ordinary” world is turned upside down. What begins as a dream is anything but as he’s thrust into a world of “form bending” beings that will change his life forever. Still wishing that it is only a dream, Ripley awakens during the night in agony as his body contorts into the shape of a wolf. No longer belonging in his human world—and with the CPS breathing down his neck, he flees Shaver Lake, his mother and his home to return to a land of dreams where he might belong. Here he befriends Whitemane, a beautiful young wolf and meets the intimidating Ghost Wolf, Malador.
Struggling to become the man he is meant to be and find his place in this new world, Ripley must overcome many obstacles and find the courage and strength he possesses deep within himself. He learns the value of family and friends when Whitemane suddenly and mysteriously disappears. Ripley sets out in search of her with his reluctant mentor, Malador as they make the difficult journey to rescue her from their enemy, the evil Kestler and her Form Benders Eradication Force. Their quest leads them from Shaver Lake to the city of Fresno where Ripley’s destiny unfolds and he finds his future—which lays within Whitemane and the band of form benders that he’s vowed to protect.