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Annotated Bibliography: St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

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Abstract

This annotated bibliography evaluates three sources related to Karen Russell's short story "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves." The entries include a web-based literary analysis identifying the story's five stages of enculturation, an opinion editorial by Stephen King arguing for the enduring but threatened value of the short story form, and a print review from the Sewanee Review offering a brief and dismissive assessment of Russell's work. Each annotation addresses the source's rhetorical context, content, and usefulness for literary research on Russell's story.

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What makes this paper effective

Each annotation follows a consistent three-part structure — rhetorical context, content summary, and evaluative judgment — giving the bibliography a professional, methodical format.
The student demonstrates critical thinking by not simply praising all sources; the Minus entry is explicitly evaluated as a weak source, which shows intellectual honesty and genuine source assessment.
The rhetorical framing of each source (audience, publication type, author credibility) reflects awareness of how context shapes a source's authority and usefulness.

Key academic technique demonstrated

The paper demonstrates proper annotated bibliography construction by separating description from evaluation. Rather than collapsing content and judgment into a single paragraph, each entry distinguishes what the source says from how useful it is — a key skill in academic research writing that allows readers to assess source quality independently.

Structure breakdown

The bibliography contains three fully annotated entries followed by a standard Works Cited section. Each annotation is divided into three clearly labeled components: rhetorical information (context and audience), content (what the source argues or discusses), and evaluation (the student's assessment of the source's value for researching Russell's story). The Works Cited section mirrors the annotation order.

The following annotated bibliography examines three sources relevant to Karen Russell's short story "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves," addressing its themes, literary merit, and critical reception.

King, Angela. "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves." 4 March 2015. prezi.com. Web. 2 April 2016.

The rhetorical context is that this is a web-based blog dissecting the literary elements of Russell's short story for other literary students and possibly for the author's professor.

The content is an analysis of the themes of Russell's story and the characters' five stages of: personal freedom; first awkward adaptation to human culture; interaction with "purebreds" and the desire to return to freedom; more comfortable enculturation with the human race; and a visit home to their wolf roots.

This source is valuable because the author clearly read and thought carefully about Russell's story and articulates the main themes and stages of the narrative with precision.

King, Stephen. "What Ails the Short Story." New York Times Book Review 30 September 2007: 7.31. Print.

The rhetorical context is that this is an opinion editorial written by a celebrated author of short fiction and published in a prominent periodical, addressed to readers of books and literary works.

The content is Stephen King's argument that the art of the short story is stable but deteriorating, owing to the relegation of short story publications to the bottom shelves of bookstores and the tendency of young writers to write for teachers and editors rather than readers. Nevertheless, King identifies "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" as one of the short stories that stands out for being written by an author with a heart, soul, and mind who genuinely cares about the reader's feelings and intellect.

This source is very helpful in assessing the value of Russell's work because Stephen King is a widely recognized master of the short story form and clearly enumerates the characteristics of short fiction written with talent and heart.

Minus, Ed. "Competent, Fair, Good, Better, Best." Sewanee Review 117.2 (2009): 331–334. Print.

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Key Concepts in This Paper

Annotated Bibliography Karen Russell Enculturation Stages Short Story Form Literary Criticism Source Evaluation Rhetorical Context Best American Stories Stephen King Wolf Mythology