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The Last Wild
Author:
Torday, Piers
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Series:
Last Wild, #1
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Class:
Fiction
Age: 8-12
Language: English
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LC: PZ7.T644
Grade: 3-7
Print Run: 75000
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ISBN-13: 9780670015542
LCCN: 2013044690
Imprint: Viking
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Pub Date: 03/18/2014
Availability: Out of Print Confirmed
List: $16.99
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Hardcover
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Physical Description:
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322 pages : illustration ; 22 cm
H 8.54",
W 5.9",
D 1.3",
0.9875 lbs.
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LC Series:
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Brodart Sources:
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Brodart's For Youth Interest: Popular
Brodart's Insight Catalog: Children
Brodart's TOP Juvenile Titles
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Bibliographies:
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Awards:
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Horn Book Guide Titles, Rated 1 - 4
Publishers Weekly Starred Reviews
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Starred Reviews:
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Publishers Weekly
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TIPS Subjects:
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Fantasy
Animals
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BISAC Subjects: |
JUVENILE FICTION / Animals / General
JUVENILE FICTION / Action & Adventure / General
JUVENILE FICTION / Humorous Stories
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LC Subjects:
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Animals, Fiction
Animals, Juvenile fiction
Diseases, Fiction
Human-animal communication, Fiction
JUVENILE FICTION / Action & Adventure / General
JUVENILE FICTION / Animals / General
JUVENILE FICTION / Fantasy & Magic
JUVENILE FICTION / Humorous Stories
Science fiction
Selective mutism, Fiction
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SEARS Subjects: |
Animals, Fiction
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Reading Programs: |
Accelerated Reader Level:
5.6
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Points: 11.0
Lexile Level:
820
Reading Counts Level:
5.4
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Points: 15.0
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| Annotations |
| Brodart's TOP Juvenile Titles | 02/01/2014 |
| Stuck in a home for troubled children, 12-year-old Kester Jaynes finds his calling when talking pigeons call on him to help save the only other animals still in existence in a world where all but the Last Wild have died out. Now Kester must join forces with a wold cub, a stubborn girl, a particular mouse, and the cockroach General to rescue the few animals that still call this land home. 336pp. |
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| Starred Reviews: |
| Publishers Weekly | 12/16/2013 |
| Ages 8-12. In this offbeat semi-apocalyptic fantasy, debut novelist Torday introduces 12-year-old Kester Jaynes, a prisoner at Spectrum Hall Academy for Challenging Children. Kester's world was turned upside down by the death of his mother six years earlier (he hasn't spoken since). The larger world is in tumult, too, wrecked by global warming and "the red-eye," which killed off most animal life and threatens humans with extinction. One day, Kester is stunned to discover he can communicate with cockroaches, pigeons, and other "varmints," who ask him for help: "*Come with us now, Kester Jaynes. Or rot here forever. The choice is yours.*" With the aid of the varmints, Kester escapes from Spectrum Hall and learns that he is the chosen savior of "the last wild," the few remaining animals on Earth. A sort of dystopian Winnie-the-Pooh, Torday's story is alternately somber, thrilling, and silly, filled with eccentric human and animal characters with distinctive voices. That includes Kester--although his fellow humans see him as silent, his courage, actions, and growth speak volumes. Agent: Clare Conville, Conville & Walsh. (Mar.). 336p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2013. |
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| Journal Reviews |
| BookPage | 04/09/2014 |
| Twelve-year-old Kester Jaynes is locked up in a "school" for troubled children that is more like a jail with solitary lock-up and nothing but goop to eat. He's been there for six years, living in drudgery, until one night when a flock of pigeons and a gathering of cockroaches insist he break out to save the last bit of wild. These creatures are the first Kester has encountered in years, since it seemed all the animals on Earth had died of the Red-Eye virus. They're certainly the first he has communicated with. Kester can't speak, but as he has just discovered, he can speak telepathically with critters. The pigeons were sent to bring Kester to a place where, hidden from everything, animals somehow survive. The head of the group, the Wildness, needs Kester's help; there has to be a cure, a dream told him so. Bigger than even the virus, there is a darkness controlled by a corporation. All of the world's crops have been torn out, all of the farm animals are gone, and all that is left to eat is a formula produced by Facto, the company in charge of everything. This dystopian world is full of adventure for Kester, who meets a girl who guards her cat with a gun, rides on the back of a magnificent stag and faces the threat of danger in every chapter. Kester is a likable character, full of longing, self-doubt and, eventually, inner growth. Readers will root for him to face his challenges and to make a difference in the world. Author Piers Torday reveals through the eyes of animals just how cruel humans are to the wild. Reminiscent of Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984, this tale is not light-hearted, but it has heart-touching moments, plenty of action, a powerful story and a white pigeon of whimsy. BookPage Children’s Corner Web Exclusive Review. BOOKPAGE, c2014. |
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| Booklist | 03/01/2014 |
| Grades 4-6. In a world where there are no more animals (only a few rogue "varmints"), Kester Jaynes finds himself in an unusual position: a cockroach is asking him for help. Kester, who hasn't spoken since his mother died, answers the entreaty of the cockroach (and some persuasive pigeons) and escapes to the forbidden wild, where a few animals have been hiding. It is up to Kester to save them by finding a cure for the deadly "red-eye" disease that has wiped them out. Torday weaves an intense narrative of survival and adventure akin to a sci-fi Brian Jacques tale and with great appeal to animal lovers. Underlying Kester's wilderness exploits, however, is a story of corruption and greed, as the powerful Selwyn Stone stages a calculated takeover of society through manufactured truths and the henchmen he employs to enforce them. The plot becomes slightly repetitive at times, but overall this is an enchanted adventure with a message of empowerment and hope that ought to sweep readers along to the planned second volume. Smith, Julia. 336p. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2014. |
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| Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books | 04/01/2014 |
| R. Gr. 4-7. The animal population has been decimated in the last decade by the red-eye virus, and the human population isn't faring too well either, setting up massive quarantines in cities and living on Formula-A (and the company that owns it) as the food supply dwindles. Meanwhile, twelve-year-old Kester, mute since his mother's death and locked away in the Spectrum Hall Academy for Challenging Children, discovers a cockroach with the ability to talk to him. The insect, along with hundreds of its brethren, busts Kester out of his prison, and the boy is taken to meet a majestic stag, who informs him that Kester is the "last wild," the last hope for the survival of the remaining animals. His subsequent journey-to find the research left behind by his veterinarian father and thwart the company behind Formula-A and the red-eye-is equal parts thrilling and poignant; Kester revels in new friendships, escapes dastardly bad guys, grieves for lost companions, and dares to hope that perhaps he can make a difference. A few dashes of humor, in the forms of a confused pigeon, a dance-obsessed mouse, and a comically arrogant wolf, add levity to the seriousness of Kester's situation, and Kester himself is an appealing Everykid. Animal lovers are the obvious audience here, but so are middle-graders intrigued by post-apocalyptic worlds but not quite ready for the grimness of YA dystopias. KQG. 336p. THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIV. OF ILLINOIS, c2014. |
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| Horn Book Guide | 05/01/2015 |
| 4. Electively mute Kester, institutionalized in a school for troubled children, lives in a barren dystopia where most animals have died from a "red eye" sickness. One day a cockroach busts him out and sends him on a mission to save the last wild animals from extermination. The fresh premise and Tim Burton-esque tone are promising, but one-note supporting characters and bland prose derail an otherwise successful book. kf. 322pg. THE HORN BOOK, c2015. |
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| Kirkus Reviews | 01/01/2014 |
| This fantasy journey with a post-apocalyptic setting combines a great fondness for animals with an appreciation of the freakish. Kester's spent the past six years at Spectrum Hall Academy for Challenging Children, a penal institution with a Roald Dahl vibe. Spectrum Hall jails kids who steal or eat too much. Kester hasn't spoken since his mother died, but is he imprisoned for that? Food is "bright pink gloop" that always, always tastes like prawn-cocktail crisps. The whole country eats this corporate-manufactured formula, since the red-eye virus killed all animals except useless varmints and contaminated all crops and vegetables. In this bleak environment, Kester befriends a cockroach--who, with hundreds of fellow cockroaches, busts Kester out of jail one shocking day through a fetid drain. Pigeons carry him to a "wild," a group of free wild animals in hiding. Although he can't speak aloud, Kester can communicate silently with varmints and animals. The red-eye is real, the animals are dying, and Kester must evade a murderous, stereotypically disabled bad guy and ride a majestic stag cross-country (with the cockroach and other critters) to reach his veterinarian father, who might have a cure. Present-tense narration creates immediacy and emphasizes Kester's limited knowledge. Although Kester's a classic special-kid-who-doesn't-know-it, the reserved narrative tone and tender yet peculiar view of animals give this piece its own offbeat flavor. (map) (Fantasy. 8-12). 336pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2014. |
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| School Library Journal | 02/01/2014 |
| Gr 3-7--"When the rest of the world grew too hot, and cracked open in the sun, everyone came to live on this cold grey rock." In a future world that is largely without animals because of a terrible virus, 12-year-old Kester Jaynes, who hasn't spoken since his mom died, is called by the cockroaches to help save the last enclave of wildlife from the deadly plague. At first, Torday's interesting, imaginary world seems to be full of inconsistencies, but he takes pains to make a cohesive speculative environment for the characters to develop within. The prose is extremely British, which can be a barrier for reluctant readers, and while the characterization of Kester is strong, the plotting and atmosphere fail to deliver enough peril to make this novel a true a page-turner. Nonetheless, this gentle, dystopian adventure is a good introduction for students who may not have encountered environmental morality tale tropes, such as talking animals, an epic quest, and an evil corporation out to destroy the world. A solid choice for students who are too young for Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games (Scholastic, 2008). L. Lee Butler, Stoughton High School, MA. 336p. SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2014. |
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| ~VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates Magazine - Retired Journal) | 06/01/2014 |
| 3Q 4P M. Twelve-year-old Kester Jaynes is locked in a prison-like reform school in the middle of the Quarantine Zone when he discovers that he can communicate telepathically with animals. Not that there are many to communicate with--a virus wiped almost all living creatures from the Earth. Only certain species of insects and rodents appear to be unaffected, and it is a cockroach who first tells Kester that he must escape in order to save the last remaining enclave of animals from extinction. Kester makes a heroic journey from the last Wild to Premium City in an attempt to find a cure. As he travels, it becomes increasingly clear that the company that has ruled the world since the onset of the epidemic is not what it seems. The plot of this eco-thriller moves swiftly enough to engage ambivalent readers, and Kester is a winsome protagonist. The animal and human companions he finds along his journey are imaginatively humorous, but villains are cartoonish, and there is very little character growth. This book should have fairly broad appeal, and will have at least one sequel. Recommend this book to readers who like the Books of Ember series by Jeanne DuPrau, noting that this book is less complex in both plot and world building.--Liz Sundermann. 336p. VOICE OF YOUTH ADVOCATES, c2014. |
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9780670015542,dl.it[0].title
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