Wild Child--Forest's First Home

February 15, 2017
Returning home from a family camping trip, Olive, 8, discovers a stowaway: Forest, the wild boy she met living in the woods. Now she's got just 24 hours to civilize him sufficiently to satisfy Gam Gam, her grandmother.Forest, about Olive's age, wears ragged, muddy clothes. He's learned his Tarzan-like human speech from campers but also speaks to squirrels, birds, and the family dog, Bailey. Olive's dad is willing to take Forest in, but her older brother, Ryan, 10, objects, especially after Forest sprays him with the garden hose, breaks the TV trying to rescue the opossums onscreen, and destroys the family's dinner. If he's to stay, Forest must pass muster with Gam Gam, a stickler for etiquette, when she arrives tomorrow for her birthday dinner (why her approval's required is unclear). Seeking to subvert Olive's plans, Ryan encourages Forest to further acts of mayhem and dresses him in a towel cape but no shirt for the dinner. Only ragged clothes and messy hair distinguish Forest from Olive and her white family, their features appearing identical, even clonelike in the cartoonish art. Olive's absent mom and Forest's origins go unexplored, which allows the wild-child premise to be played strictly for laughs but leaves an unsavory residue of subtext, suggesting poverty, homelessness, and family disruption. Perhaps more will be explained in Book 2. Neither realism nor fantasy, this dismal series opener is marred by cliched characters and a plot evidently unaware of its darker implications. (Fiction. 5-7)

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November 1, 2016

Gr 3-5-Olive didn't expect to stumble across a boy living in the woods when she was chasing her dog, but she and this "wild child," Forest, become fast friends. Her dad says Forest can stay with them on the condition that Olive teaches him how to live in a house and behave correctly before her grandmother comes to visit at the end of the week. Olive sets out to show Forest how everything in the house operates and how to be civilized. He tries to get the hang of it all, but it's not so easy. He would rather sleep perched on top of a bookcase instead of in a bed, and he misunderstands how to use toothpaste, smearing it all over himself. Olive's brother Ryan isn't too helpful, either, undermining her efforts by encouraging Forest to play football in the house. Hilarity ensues when Gam Gam visits. Illustrations throughout aid in telling the story. VERDICT Relatively short chapters and plenty of illustrations make this an accessible chapter book with a plot that will amuse young readers. The first in a planned series.-Laura Fields Eason, Parker Bennett Curry Elementary School, Bowling Green, KY

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2017
Grades 2-4 While camping with her family, Olive discovers a wild boy living in the woods. Named Forest, he has no family and learned English by eavesdropping on campers. To Olive's surprise, Forest sneaks into their car and comes home with them. Olive is delighted, her petulant brother Ryan annoyed, and their father willing to welcome Forest into the familyassuming his overbearing mother, Gam Gam, approves. Now Olive has 24 hours to civilize Forest before Gam Gam's birthday dinner. Forest destroys the TV trying to save raccoon ninjas, lets a frog loose in the kitchen, and sleeps on top of the bookcase. But he also listens to oft-ignored Olive, giving her confidence to stand up for herself, even against Gam Gam. Implausible but fun, the timeless premise of the feral child provides a new option for transitional chapter books. Plentiful full-page and inset cartoon illustrations (final art not seen) break up the text. Hand this to kids not quite ready for Maryrose Wood's The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)