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Kit's Wilderness
Thirteen-year-old Kit Watson's family has moved back to Stoneygate to care for his grandfather, whose memory and health are failing. Kit and his family watch helplessly as the older man struggles to hold on to both the present and the past. John Askew, also 13, has lived in Stoneygate his entire life. Abused by his alcoholic father, John is surly and sometimes unfriendly, a dark, seemingly dangerous presence who leads a small group of kids in a game called "Death" in an old pit mining cave. Both boys sense the ghosts of the many children who died over the years in the mines. Both boys are gifted artists; Kit as a writer, John with his drawing. And both boys' names are on a monument to children who were killed in a mining accident long ago: ancestors who died at the very age they are now. "You're like me," John warns Kit, and Kit wants to deny it. There is good in everyone, Kit's grandpa tells him. But Allie Keenan, a shining, spirited girl who will discover her dream to be an actor when she dazzles in the part of the evil sister in The Snow Queen, warns Kit that John Askew is "a caveman" and "a lout." Challenged by a teacher to write a story set in the early days of human history, Kit imagines an early cave-dweller, a boy who, much like the now runaway John, fears his father, adores his baby sister, and yearns for his mother. Kits' characters take on the tangibility of real life, and soon the lines between fact and fiction, waking and dreaming, past and present are blurred. Kit realizes that what happens in his story–a story he is no longer merely imagining--somehow has the power to affect what happens to John. At the same time, he is finding the strength to come to terms with the inevitability of his grandpa's death. David Almond's narrative offers readers countless points of discussion and avenues to explore both its extraordinary literary elements and their own hearts and minds. ©2000 Cooperative Children's Book Center
CCBC Age Recommendation: Age 12 and older
Age Range:
Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13)
Grades 9-12 (Age 14 and older)
Format:
Novel
Subjects:
20th Century
Acting and Actors
Art and Artists
Child Abuse
Child Labor
Creativity
Death and Dying
Economic Hardship and Poverty
Families
Fathers
Friendship
Grandfathers
Historical Fiction
Hope and Healing
Magical Realism
Memory
Small Town Life
Theater
Writers and Writing
Publisher:
Delacorte
Publish Year: 2000
Pages: 229
ISBN: 0385326653
CCBC Location: Fiction, Almond