The Wild Kid

by Harry Mazer, Deborah Lanino (Illustrator)

Overview

"Can I go home now?"
After his bike gets stolen, twelve-year-old Sammy gets lost in the woods near his home. He stumbles upon the makeshift hideaway of the "wild kid" named Kevin, who has run away from reform school. Will this strongly independent tough let Sammy get home to his family? Can they both survive in the unforgiving wilderness?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689822896
Publisher:	Aladdin
Publication date:	07/01/2000
Edition description:	Repackage
Pages:	112
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	450L (what's this?)
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Harry Mazer is the author of many books for young readers, including Please, Somebody Tell Me Who I Am; My Brother Abe; the Boy at War trilogy; The Wild Kid; The Dog in the Freezer; The Island Keeper; and Snow Bound. His books have won numerous honors, including a Horn Book honor and an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults citation. Along with his wife, Norma Fox Mazer, Harry received an ALAN award in 2003 for outstanding contribution to adolescent literature. He lives in Montpelier, Vermont.

Editorial Reviews

With remarkable restraint and without sentimentality, Mazer tells the story of Sammy, a twelve-year-old boy with Down syndrome held captive in the woods by Kevin, a delinquent teenage runaway. Convincingly told from Sammy's guileless point of view, the spare and simple narrative is at turns harrowing and touching. Short, suspenseful chapters move the action along; intriguing characterization lends depth to the drama. When Sammy, who's far from his home and lost, stumbles upon Kevin's forest lair, Kevin ties Sammy up, afraid that if he lets Sammy go, Kevin will be tracked down and sent back to reform school. Sammy never wavers in his desire to go home, but his optimistic outlook and good humor eventually win Kevin's confidence, and an unlikely friendship develops between the two boys. Angry, hostile Kevin comes to depend on Sammy's companionship; overprotected Sammy, who has been punished-and sometimes hit-for not behaving like "an almost-grown-up person," gets a taste of independence and freedom while surviving in the woods, as Kevin insists that he learn to do things on his own. Mazer manages to portray both the victim and the victimizer as sympathetic, complex characters, something Sammy knows is true all along: "Just because you're not always good doesn't make you bad." The realistic ending, which finds Sammy safe and at home, leaves Kevin's story unresolved and a deep ache in Sammy's heart. "People said Sammy was slow, but he knew things." Sammy, who knows about forgiveness and hope, is worth taking time to listen to.
--Horn Book

Kitty Flynn

When 12-year-old Sammy, who has Down's syndrome, gets lost (while he chases after his stolen bike and its rider, he climbs on the back of a truck and winds up miles from home), he encounters Kevin, a runaway who has been living on his own in the forest. Afraid that Sammy will give him away to the authorities, Kevin won't let him return home, and eventually the two boys form a tenuous friendship. Although Kevin grows protective, Sammy never loses his determination to leave; when he makes his break, he ends up in danger, and Kevin risks his freedom to save him. In the poignant ending, Sammy, safe at home, holds on to the hope that one day Kevin will come to live with him; no one else believes Kevin exists. Mazer (Twelve Shots, 1997, etc.), keeping the perspective strictly Sammy's, structures the story so that the boys are two sides of the same coin: one dependent and sweet-natured, but with a stubborn streak, and the other tough, self-reliant, and kind only at the core. Realistically, and with small, honest gestures, each helps the other to grow; Sammy becomes more independent, while Kevin becomes more compassionate. An exciting, unusual survival story, very well told. (b&w illustrations, not seen) (Fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews