Where The World Turns Wild (Where the World Turns Wild, 1)

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It's a tale of love, family, loyalty and courage, which is unafraid of asking big questions about our world and what we're doing to it. Some books are excellent story telling, and some books broaden your knowledge and mind, and some just ought to be written and this book is all three.

The initial familiar school setting instantly draws empathy from any reader who has ever felt isolated at school. The authors message told through the children about what possibly could be the future if people don’t stop and think about the treatment of the planet was very thought provoking. Penfold does an amazing job of building up the atmosphere, and I could really feel how bleak their city was before they left. I'm sure this book has been incredibly popular with middle-grade readers and adults alike as it has some lovely and very important themes throughout. As Juniper and Bear journey further from the city, they soon learn that there’s cruelty in nature as well as beauty.This is a novel that will touch the hearts of young readers and encourage them to fight for their future. Because if we don’t change the way we live soon – very soon – it will be too late to save the planet. Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc. It is also full of the wider, urgent hope (of the reader) that the children can survive, adapt and flourish back in the Wild, despite its natural dangers and many unfamiliarities, and hope that the government drones and spies that circle them will not threaten their newly found (and harshly won) freedom. A salve to the feral souls who yearn for the peace outside the over urbanised and noisy existence cage that we have made for ourselves and our children.

This alone would have been enough to catch my interest, but it's also about rewilding, a passion of mine. While most people seem content to live in such a cage, she and her little brother, Bear, have always known about their resistance to the disease and dream of escaping into the wild. Overall, it is a wonderful book for anyone who loves an adventure, with a slightly bittersweet ending that has lots of sequel potential. Ticks had been carrying a disease that wiped out entire towns and cities, so the government stepped in and created barriers, rules and consequences for being a nature lover.

An outbreak of a deadly man-mad disease carried by ticks has resulted in the authorities destroying everything wild and green and erecting a buffer zone around the city, closely monitoring its citizens’ activities.