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A review by cassroberts89
Wildwood by Colin Meloy
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Okay, I’m admittedly well over the age of 12. Perhaps if I was actually the target demographic, I could go higher on my rating. Maybe. BIG maybe.
Sure, this was an adventure. And there was the teeny tiniest hint of magic (not nearly as much as I anticipated going into it), and maybe a bit of a folktale vibe. But man, talk about suspending disbelief. I have a hard time with that anyway, but we jump right into a 12 year old not only being 100% responsible for a baby (literally, like a not-even-walking-yet baby) but hauling said baby around town in a regular ol’ red flyer wagon hitched up to a bicycle? “Skidding to a halt” and leaving him alone outside the public library while she goes in to drop books off? These parents didn’t even set eyes on the actual baby from that morning until well AFTER the sister sneaks off in the middle of the night to rescue him.
There’s more, but I don’t really want to dedicate more time to every little thing. Really, the book could have easily been at least 100 pages shorter. The biggest issue I have is with their completely helpless and incompetent parents. It’s a pet peeve of mine in children’s literature. Yes, give us strong, resilient, intelligent children. But for the love of all the things, let them also have adults in their life that are realistic and reasonable!After hearing about the baby still being missing in these somehow-impenetrable woods, the parents are all like, Oh well, I guess we just live without him. Dad literally says, “We can be happy, the three of us.” 😳 Okaaayyy.
Anyway. I guess other than my own hangups with the story, being a boring grown up and all, it’s still a pretty fun adventure. There’s lots of travel between areas of the woods (realms?), random sidekick friends made along the way, battles, etc. The violence is actually a bit more than I would have expected—including guns used in battle and people and animals being shot and killed, in case that’s something you’d like to stay away from as parents. The ending is also left wide open for the next book. I believe there are three? I don’t think I’ll be reading them, but they’re there.
This was chosen from a selection of books by my library middle grade book club kiddos. I have not discussed with them yet, however. I’m very interested to see what they thought!
Sure, this was an adventure. And there was the teeny tiniest hint of magic (not nearly as much as I anticipated going into it), and maybe a bit of a folktale vibe. But man, talk about suspending disbelief. I have a hard time with that anyway, but we jump right into a 12 year old not only being 100% responsible for a baby (literally, like a not-even-walking-yet baby) but hauling said baby around town in a regular ol’ red flyer wagon hitched up to a bicycle? “Skidding to a halt” and leaving him alone outside the public library while she goes in to drop books off? These parents didn’t even set eyes on the actual baby from that morning until well AFTER the sister sneaks off in the middle of the night to rescue him.
There’s more, but I don’t really want to dedicate more time to every little thing. Really, the book could have easily been at least 100 pages shorter. The biggest issue I have is with their completely helpless and incompetent parents. It’s a pet peeve of mine in children’s literature. Yes, give us strong, resilient, intelligent children. But for the love of all the things, let them also have adults in their life that are realistic and reasonable!
Anyway. I guess other than my own hangups with the story, being a boring grown up and all, it’s still a pretty fun adventure. There’s lots of travel between areas of the woods (realms?), random sidekick friends made along the way, battles, etc. The violence is actually a bit more than I would have expected—including guns used in battle and people and animals being shot and killed, in case that’s something you’d like to stay away from as parents. The ending is also left wide open for the next book. I believe there are three? I don’t think I’ll be reading them, but they’re there.
This was chosen from a selection of books by my library middle grade book club kiddos. I have not discussed with them yet, however. I’m very interested to see what they thought!