Wild Things [Hardcover]

Clay Carmichael (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2009 | Age Range: 9 - 11 years | Lexile Measure: 890L (What's this?)

A headstrong girl. A stray cat. A wild boy. A man who plays with fire. Eleven-year-old Zoe trusts no one. Her father left before she was born. At the death of her irresponsible mother, Zoe goes to live with her uncle, former surgeon and famed metal sculptor Dr. Henry Royster. She's sure Henry will fail her as everyone else has. Reclusive since his wife's death, Henry takes Zoe to Sugar Hill, North Carolina, where he welds sculptures as stormy as his moods. Zoe and Henry have much in common: brains, fiery and creative natures, and badly broken hearts. Zoe confronts small-town prejudice with a quick temper. She warms to Henry's odd but devoted friends, meets a mysterious teenage boy living wild in the neighboring woods, and works to win the trust of a feral cat while struggling to trust in anyone herself. Zoe's questing spirit leads her to uncover the wild boy's identity, lay bare a local lie, and begin to understand the true power of Henry's art. Then one decisive night, she and the boy risk everything in a reckless act of heroism.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Eleven-year-old Zoë is a survivor. Her fiery independence has seen her through a series of adults who “don’t stick,” and she trusts no one, including Uncle Henry, who has just taken her in after the death of her neglectful mother. Henry is a renowned sculptor of what Zoë skeptically calls “wild things.” Other wild things slip through Henry’s North Carolina woods unnoticed until Zoë’s arrival catapults them into the spotlight, with life-changing consequences for everyone. In her debut novel, Carmichael gives a familiar plot fresh new life in this touching story with a finely crafted sense of place. Zoë’s first-person narration alternates with the observations of a feral tomcat who provides hints to the past, and an array of well-drawn eccentric characters add additional sparkle to the magic-touched story. Zoë’s fierce, funny voice is compelling, whether she is describing tense standoffs or moments of rare vulnerability that go straight to the heart. Carmichael uses a sure, light touch to portray the gradual blooming of trust among the story’s many wild things in this satisfying tale. Grades 5-8. --Lynn Rutan

Review

* "... Strongly drawn characters - Zoe, Henry and the people in their small town - come alive on the pages of this debut novel...A tribute to the power of story, this is ultimately a tale of hope and redemption. Zoe Royster, peer to the literary heroines she so loves, is as memorable in her own way as the Great Gilly Hopkins, Opal Buloni and Anne Shirley." --Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

"It's hard to resist the voice of 11-year-old narrator Zoe, who stars in Carmichael's (Bear at the Beach) swiftly-paced first novel, alongside a supporting cast of eccentric characters nearly as wild as she...[The] cluster of quirky, winning characters will feel like a throng of old friends by story's end." --Shelf Awareness

"... Carmichael's a smooth and evocative stylist, and the classic elements of the orphan story retain their appeal as Zoe begins to come to terms with her sad past in the face of her loving present...Zoe...is at times a new-millennium Shirley Temple in her relentlessly adorable moppetry..." --The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Carmichael's a smooth and evocative stylist, and the classic elements of the orphan story retain their appeal as Zoe begins to come to terms with her sad past in the face of her loving present...Zoe...is at times a new-millennium Shirley Temple in her relentlessly adorable moppetry. --The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

It's hard to resist the voice of 11-year-old narrator Zoë, who stars in Carmichael's (Bear at the Beach) swiftly-paced first novel, alongside a supporting cast of eccentric characters nearly as wild as she. A feral black-and-white cat, for example, whose perspective unfolds through an occasional third-person narrative (and fills in some of the characters' background), suspects human beings just as much as Zoë does. Their reluctance to trust and their gradual softening (the feline for Zoë, and Zoë for her uncle) run in tandem. Despite her age, Zoë's had enough life experiences to fill the memoir she's started writing. Her mentally unstable mother went from man to man before finally taking her own life--which is how Zoë wound up with Uncle Henry Royster, the half-brother of the father she never met who's also deceased. The girl and her uncle's matching gap-toothed smiles and red hair attest to their common DNA; they also share a rather prickly independent-minded personality. But as time goes on, they grow quite fond of each other. Zoë, who always found refuge in the library, warms to Henry's book collection ("Next to animals, I loved books more than anything"), and she rethinks her initial impression of her fifth-grade teacher, Ms. Avery ("dumb as petunias"), when the woman starts leaving books for Zoë and gives her time and space in the back of the room during the school day. Carmichael portrays a small Southern town with its requisite busybodies and odd personalities as well as a history of social dynamics that stretches back at least a generation. A rundown cabin in the woods and a mysterious white deer with an evasive companion introduce additional intrigue that helps Zoë to discover who she is in the world, both literally and figuratively. At times, the third-person sections focused on the cat (whom Zoë names Mr. C'mere) feel intrusive, but the relationship between the cat and the heroine is so essential to Zoë's development that readers will likely overlook this narrative device. This cluster of quirky, winning characters will feel like a throng of old friends by story's end.--Jennifer M. Brown --Shelf Awareness

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 9 - 11 years
  
• Hardcover: 241 pages
• Publisher: Front Street Press; Second printing edition (May 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590786270
• ISBN-13: 978-1590786277
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #621,267 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Award-winning author and illustrator Clay Carmichael's new novel "Wild Things" is a 2010 American Library Association Notable Book, a Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Book of 2009, winner of the 2009 North Carolina Juvenile Literature Award and a National Association of Parenting Publications Gold Award (NAPPA). Carmichael lives and works in Carrboro, North Carolina with her husband, sculptor Mike Roig. She teaches writing and illustrating and gives talks about about her publishing process and the exotic life of the author. Her picture books are available in many languages. More about Clay: www.claycarmichael.com & www.wincbooks.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too June 20, 2009

By TeensReadToo

Format:Hardcover

In WILD THINGS, protagonist Zoe no longer trusts anyone. Both her parents have now left her; her father left at an early age, and now her mother, an irresponsible mother and slob, has died. As a result of her traumatic, unbelievably self-sufficient childhood, Zoe trusts only herself.

To begin, Zoe goes to live with her uncle, Dr. Henry Royster, a surgeon. In his house she finds massive sharp metal sculptures dangling in a room, as she finds out her uncle is a famed sculptor. Though reluctant to trust Henry because everyone else in her life has failed her, Zoe finds much in common with him, especially their equally broken hearts.

All the while, Zoe meets a cast of friendly, curious characters who are loyal to Henry and begin to mend her heart, along with a wise cat and a mystical boy in the nearby forest. Zoe's curiosity, as she explores the woods, leads to adventure, heroism, and more as she unmasks the boy's identity, defiles a local lie, and more through her Wild Spirit. The tale of WILD THINGS is a wondrous page-turner.

What a phenomenal debut book by Ms. Carmichael. Throughout the story, I was stunned by the depth of the characters, and how I truly connected with many of them. My favorite part was the added perspective of the narrative of the wild cat, which adds an excellent dimension to this book. Carmichael, inspired by her actual husband, also a metal artist, skillfully weaves this story and interesting characters together to create the masterpiece that is WILD THINGS.

A must-read for all readers!

Reviewed by: Andrew S. Cohen

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, engaging new fiction! I couldn't put it down! July 19, 2009

By B. Payne

Format:Hardcover

Wild Things is an amazing, well-written book, as engaging and thoughtful a read for adults as for children. Clay Carmichael does a fantastic job with character development, and I highly recommend this novel for all ages.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent novel that will tug at your heart April 2, 2010

By M. Tanenbaum VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

I was immediately engrossed in this novel about a young girl raised by a mentally ill mother and a succession of boyfriends. When her mother commits suicide before the start of the book, she is adopted by an uncle she didn't even know existed, a relative on her father's side of the family. This uncle is a world-famous heart surgeon and sculptor (an unusual combination but utterly believable in this context) who like our protagonist, Zoe, has a broken heart, having lost his beloved wife to cancer. Adding to the mix are a number of eccentric characters, in the tradition of novels such as Because of Winn Dixie, including a stray cat who Zoe somewhat predictably tames by the end of the novel. We see the story both through Zoe's eyes and through the eyes of the cat, who observes everything going on in the small town. The Wild Things referred to in the title applies to a variety of multi-layered characters in the novel, including a mysterious albino fawn, a strange boy who lurks in the woods, Zoe's uncle's strange sculptures, and Zoe herself. This is a perfect book for those who enjoyed stories of prickly young girls such as The Great Gilly Hopkins.