Wildoak by C. C. Harrington

Wildoak is a gentle story about a girl finding a voice and a cause in the natural world.

Wildoak by C. C. Harrigan. Scholastic, 2022, 315 pages.

Readng Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12

Recommended for: ages 8-14

Maggie has so much to say but can’t get the words out because of a bad stutter. The harder she tries, the heavier a block lies on her tongue, causing untold frustration. To make matters worse, her father doesn’t understand and most of her teachers have labeled her as stupid. She can only communicate with her small collection of animals, including snails, roll-up bugs, and mice—what passes for a wild menagerie in a city like London. With these, the words flow like water.

Father finally has enough and starts looking into remedial boarding schools. But this is the mid-sixties, and the quality of such institutions is uneven at best. Mother intervenes, suggesting that Maggie spend a few weeks with her maternal grandfather in Cornwall, whom she’s never met. That prospect is almost as scary as going to a “home,” until she meets the man, a country doctor who insists she call him Fred and who has with the same affinity with wild creatures as she. Even better, Fred’s home is surrounded by old-growth forest, where Maggie encounters an exotic creature escaped from captivity: a snow leopard, whose collar bears the name “Rumpus.” The two have barely become acquainted when an existential threat looms: to the forest, to the leopard, and to the girl’s emerging voice.

The message Maggie receives from the forest, and from one particular tree, is Be gentle with yourself. It is hard to be human. All of us need to hear this from time to time, but children most of all. There is healing power in nature, built into it by the Creator of all; this we can appreciate, even though God is never mentioned in the story. His work is evident, rendered with sensitivity and appreciation but not worship.

Overall Rating: 4

Worldview/moral value: 3.5

Artistic/literary value: 4.5

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Also in Redeemed Reader:

Reviews: Two novels about survival in the wild: Northwind and Pax, Journey Home.

Resource: See our nature study booklist!

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