Imagine for a moment that every time you open your mouth to try to say what you need, to give your opinion, to try to share something funny, something scary, something sad with a friend... imagine that your voice gets stuck and your words don't come. Imagine this happens to you in front of the kids in your class - not just once but again and again ....and they know it will happen....and they laugh... at you.
Imagine for a moment you are a snow leopard bought by a department store..... and sold to a woman who had no appreciation for nature and no appreciation that you are a wild creature who cannot say what you need or what is scaring you....you have no words.
In this deeply sensitive and caring story a young girl named Maggie has a stutter and her words don't come. She is being sent down to stay with her grandfather in a part of England called Cornwall where there is a glorious forest with trees that are hundreds of years old. That is where she will meet a snow leopard named Rumpus who has been abandoned in this glorious forest with no idea of how to feed himself or find his sister, Rosie.
Rumpus and Maggie, two lost creatures, find a friend in each other. Can Maggie find a way to shout loud enough to be heard by the people of this village where she and her grandfather live? Can Rufus survive being caught in a gin trap?
The glaring lack of awareness of the natural treasure in this community rings out. The easy prejudice of many people when they encounter Maggie and her stutter is painful to watch.
Here is a deeply moving story about the value of every living creature - tree, leopard, child. It is a call to us to pay attention to our natural world - the one nearby us each day - and to make choices - small or large - that will help each creature thrive. What a wonderful way to live a life.
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com
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When the fates of a snow leopard, a child, and an ancient forest collide, the unimaginable can happen. Perfect for fans of Pax and The One and Only Ivan.
Maggie Stephens’s stutter makes school especially hard. She will do almost anything to avoid speaking in class or calling attention to herself. So when her unsympathetic father threatens to send her away for so-called “treatment,” she reluctantly agrees to her mother’s intervention plan: a few weeks in the fresh air of Wildoak Forest, visiting a grandfather she hardly knows. It is there, in an extraordinary twist of fate, that she encounters an abandoned snow leopard cub, an exotic gift to a wealthy Londoner that proved too wild to domesticate.
But once the cub’s presence is discovered by others, danger follows, and Maggie soon realizes that time is running out, not only for the leopard, but for herself and the forest as well. Told in alternating voices, Wildoak shimmers with beauty, compassion, and unforgettable storytelling as it explores the delicate interconnectedness of the human, animal, and natural worlds.---from the publisher
288 pages 978-1338803860 Ages 9-13
Keywords: snow leopard, nature, animals, forest, environment, connection, compassion, stutter, values, finding your voice, point of view, self image, 9 year old, 10 year old, 11 year old, 12 year old, 13 year old, historical fiction
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Other reviews:
* "Harrington packs her memorably atmospheric debut with compelling issues, but her sharply felt portrayals of two vulnerable youngsters of different species bonding as they find their ways in hostile worlds will make the deepest impression." ― Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“Reads like a classic. I loved it!” –Pam Muñoz Ryan, author of the bestsellers Esperanza Rising and the Newbery Honor book Echo
"Wildoak makes us believe the world may well be as mysterious and as lovely and as possible as we had hoped." –Gary D. Schmidt, author of Just Like That and the Newbery Honor book The Wednesday Wars
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“Try and leave this world a little better than you found it”
– attributed to Lord Baden Powell, founder of the Scouting movement
“Why don't you all f-f-fade away (talkin' 'bout my generation)
And don't try to d-dig what we all s-s-say (talkin' 'bout my generation)
I'm not trying to 'cause a b-b-big s-s-sensation (talkin' 'bout my generation)
I'm just talkin' 'bout my g-g-generation (talkin' 'bout my generation).”
– “My Generation,” a well-known example of stuttering in popular music. The Who (1965)
“Harrods luxury department store in Knightsbridge is now home to over 5,000 brands, selling designer fashion, fine jewelry, food, furniture and more. However, it was once the home of a legendary Pet Kingdom, selling all sorts of exotic animals such as lions, alligators and elephants.
Rightfully so, this cruel practice of selling wild animals as pets is not continued by the store today. The pet store section of the shop closed back in 2014 and was replaced with a womenswear section, thus bringing to end one of the most extraordinary eras in retail history.
While it is almost hard to believe today that all these wild animals were sold right here in London, the history of the store tells an incredible story. The department store's ‘Pet Kingdom’ opened up back in 1917 selling animals such as tigers and panthers.”
– Ella Bennett, mylondon.news (2022)
“‘Wellington? Wellington, I’m back,’ she whispered, lifting a shoebox off the shelf and into her lap. The sides of the box had been cut open to make miniature windows and a front door that never closed.
‘Hello, my friend,’ she said, nudging a nest of straw and bits of torn-up newspaper. A small brown mouse poked his head out, whiskers twitching.’How are you doing? I’ve got so much to tell you.’ Maggie paused. ‘It’s not really a good kind of tell you. More of a bad kind of tell you.’ The mouse shook his head and dislodged little pieces of straw from behind his ears. Then he stood up on his hind legs and cocked his head to one side, almost as if he were listening.
It had been this way since Maggie could remember. Since the day her parents had first taken her to the London Zoo and she’d seen the tiger. He had come up to her on the other side of the bars, close. Close enough for Maggie to look directly into his gold-amber eyes. ‘You’re trying to tell me things,’ she had whispered, her small human heart beating hard, ‘But you can’t get the words out, can you?’
Then, without thinking, she had started talking to the big cat and the words had flowed. No stuttering, no blocks, nothing. Mr. and Mrs. Stephens had stared, astonished by what was happening. Nobody had ever been able to understand the why or how of it, but from that moment on, Maggie had not stuttered whenever she talked to animals. She still didn’t.”
WILDOAK is set in 1963 Britain. The story’s point of view alternates between Maggie, a young girl burdened by lifelong stuttering, and Rumpus, a young snow leopard who has been sold by Harrods. Rumpus crosses paths with this extraordinary young animal lover after he wrecks the flat of the woman to whom he was given as a gift, and is loaded into a truck and then dumped in a Cornwall forest. That ancient forest adjoins the village where Maggie is sent for a visit with her maternal grandfather, a kindly old physician named Fred. Her parents’ hope is that the change of scenery will help her move toward overcoming her stuttering.
Driven by hunger, Rumpus stumbles into a claw trap and nearly perishes before he’s discovered by Maggie. She brings him water, struggles in vain to free him from the trap, and bandages his injured paw. The pair bond.
But what should she do next? Can the leopard survive its subsequent infection? Where can he live safely as the ancient forest is being chopped down for development?
WILDOAK, the moving story of Maggie and Rumpus, vividly depicts the interconnectedness of life on Planet Earth. For those who believe that our stewardship of the planet must include preservation of scarce wild environments and threatened wild creatures–of leaving this place better than we found it–this is a must-have for sharing with middle grade and middle school readers.
Recommended by: Richie Partington, MLIS, California USA
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