Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms

Starred review from May 19, 2014
Twelve-year-old Wilhelmina “Will” Silver loves her “wildcat life” on a farm “in the hottest corner of Zimbabwe” where she rides horses, trains monkeys, and plays with her friend Simon. Disapproving neighbors consider her “a different species,” but her widowed father thinks her “irrefutably the most beautiful creature living.” His untimely death shatters Will’s world, and results in her being sent to an English boarding school. Will’s father’s dying words, “Courage, chook, ja?” sustain her in a mystifying new environment for which she has no preparation or advocate, where mocking classmates call her savage. Employing a close third-person narrative, Rundell (Rooftoppers) deftly conveys the terror that impels Will to escape into the streets of London, which she navigates with ingenuity and survival skills honed in Africa. Lyrical prose, Zimbabwean dialect, and evocative dialogue express Will’s internal and external worlds; after a street fight, “her heart was rattling around like a cutlery drawer in an earthquake. She spoke to an imaginary Simon. ‘Sha, hey?’ ” A gripping, magical, and heartwarming tale of resilience, friendship, and hope. Ages 8–12. Agent: Claire Wilson, Rogers, Coleridge & White.

Starred review from May 15, 2014
"It wasn't until Will's Wildcat life came under threat that she realized how dearly she loved it."Wilhelmina Silver-Will, Madman and Wildcat to those who love her-deeply relishes her life in rural Zimbabwe. Daughter of a mother long lost to malaria and a loving English father who is foreman at Two Tree Hill Farm, Will spends her time racing about the vibrant terrain as an uber-tomboy. Her best friend is a farmhand her own age, known since their earlier childhood: "a tall, fluid black boy to her waiflike, angular white girl." Will's carefree, African world shatters when her father succumbs to malaria, after which the plantation owner's new, manipulative wife sends Will to a boarding school in London. Apparently set in the present day, the story accelerates its pace as Will uses her wits and her considerable athleticism to combat the hostility of bullying classmates and to cope with her new, cold, urban surroundings. There is an excellent balance of characters both villainous and helpful as readers follow the fiercely independent Will through hardship and into triumph. They cannot help but dearly love Will and her motto of "Truth, ja, and courage."With debut novel Rooftoppers (2013), Rundell showed her capacity to write an entertaining story featuring a courageous female protagonist; this second novel surpasses by virtue of its striking, soaring prose. (Fiction. 8-13)

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Starred review from October 1, 2014

Gr 4-6-Twelve-year-old Wilhelmina Silver-aka Will, Wildcat, Madman, Cartwheel-has what she considers to be an idyllic life. Since her mother's death when she was five, she has been "raised" on a remote farm in Zimbabwe by her father, the farm foreman. She has been free to explore and run like the wind; ride bareback on her horse, Shumba; and has a pet monkey to keep her company. She is at home in the bush and sleeps in trees, if necessary, and routinely steals fruit and sets fires with her best friend Simon and the rest of the farm boys. She's a good reader and keen observer, but her formal education has been sketchy at best. The things she knows to be true are not easily quantified or necessarily valued. When her father dies, she is left in the care of Captain Browne, the kindly farm owner, and his scheming and manipulative new wife. When it is announced that the farm is to be sold and Will is to be sent to a private school in England, the girl's golden world is shattered. Leaving behind all that she has known and loves and adjusting to a cold, inhospitable climate is just part of her challenge. She has always been a quick study and a fierce competitor and there is no place for her to shine in the snooty, highly regimented school. Driven by desperation and the girls' cruelty, Will runs away and has to work out for herself what is real, valuable, and true. Rundell's vivid and compelling prose brings both worlds to life on a visceral level and propels her characters forward. Readers will be engaged by Will's voice (and her colorful linguistic twists), ache for her through her sorrow and loss, and celebrate her newly sparked confidence and resolve. Warning: there will be cartwheels!-Luann Toth, School Library Journal

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2014
Grades 4-7 *Starred Review* Had anyone ever been as happy as her, wonders young Wilhelmina Silver. Will is loved fiercely by everyone around her: the owner of the Zimbabwe farm she calls home; her large, exuberant father, who manages the farm; her best friend, Simon; the local workers; and her animalsa pony and a monkey. And Will, half wild and utterly ingenuous, loves them all in return. She's different, right? Like fire, says her friend Simon. But after her father's sudden death, Will is bundled off to a boarding school in England, where the everyday savagery among her classmates destroys her sense of self and joy. This is a survival story, and Rundell achieves a heart-in-mouth state of tension in which fear for Will's physical safety is second only to an anguished dread that Will's spirit will be the casualty. Will's character blazes from the pages like her beloved Zimbabwe sun, and to watch her joyful intensity falter provokes an almost physical pain. The school ringleader's convenient change of behavior is the only slight wobble, as it is something readers will know wasn't needed. Will's resilience is wholly believable, though, and the advice provided by a kindly rescuer strikes a welcome note of honesty for young readers: It is real life that takes the real courage, little wildcat . . . It's what life is. Rundell's language soars in this portrait of a fierce and large-hearted girl.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)