Juniper Green lives in a walled city from which nature has been banished, following the outbreak of a deadly man-made disease many years earlier. While most people seem content to live in such a cage, she and her little brother, Bear, have always known about their resistance to the disease and dream of escaping into the wild. Juniper and Bear live in a world blighted by a dangerous virus. Their city is walled and sterile, sanitised of all things wild and natural. But there is a sense of change in the air. Where the World Turns Wild was shortlisted for the first Joan Aiken Future Classics Prize in 2017. It was also selected for SCBWI's 2018 Undiscovered Voices anthology. I really, really like Juniper and Bear. They are brave and scared, uncertain and ready to take risks. The love and affection they have for each other is just brilliant. Their journey together into the unknown wild is inspiring and beautiful. There's peril and hardship and there's acceptance and belonging. I love Bear's wildness and carefree nature, and also the pressure this puts on Juniper as she takes on responsibility for him. It's an interesting depiction of someone who's pushed into the responsible big sister/mothering role by outside circumstances.

Juniper is thirteen and lives in the city with her little brother Bear. To the children, this city seems like a cage, as they used to live in the Wild. Leaving the city and returning to their mother has always been their dream. But this is a time when the world has changed. Fifty years previously a group calling themselves the Rewilders, let lose a deadly disease, which killed a huge proportion of the population and now the remnants must live in the city, allowing the world to recover from the pollution and ill treatment. Nicola Penfold's way of introducing new words to younger readers and inspiring them to learn more about the natural world was incredible. For Juniper and her little brother Bear, escaping their cage of a city has always been a secret dream. But when scientists discover the siblings are key to a merciless plan, their escape becomes more than that. Now it’s a flight for their lives. Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)? I loved Ghost, who stays with Juniper and Bear throughout their journey and is a constant source of hope and comfort. She also symbolises the amazing relationship between humanity and the wild, how we need and rely on each other and the ways we can work together if we're paying attention.I also really enjoyed how Penfold introduced more complex vocabulary, both through Juniper and Bear's clever word game (which I'm determined to start playing with my daughter) and Juniper's memory of the old dictionary she read. And every morning I’m waking from my dreams of an altogether different kind of canopy of branches and leaves, and I think I can’t stand it anymore. Another day in this city. My heart attached itself to Ghost from the first time I saw them. I’d love to tell you all about Ghost but don’t want to ruin anything for you. Keep a piece of your heart reserved for them though. They deserve it. I've got a very special guest post by author Nicola Penfold, that I'll be sharing here. It's an excellent piece about journeys in literature, and I definitely recommend reading it. To keep things straightforward, I'm sharing my own review of Nicola's book in this post. A brilliant adventure that pulls you headlong into Juniper and Bear’s world, where survival depends upon fi nding the wild.” Gill Lewis, author of Sky Hawk

Beautiful writing, a devourable read, about a critical subject. Juniper’s live and care for her little brother grabs you straight away. Bear is a real kid with realistic behaviour in a tough world under impressively pressure. Supporting characters still have weight, and you worry for them and the world they live in. This is an emotionally and vividly written story with a whole cast of touching, heart-felt characters such as the beautiful Ghost and brave Hester and Queenie and their gang. It is such a thought provoking and unique book - the big idea of a world that has destroyed itself is quite genuinely a sobering premise in 2020. Yet the story sets so much promise in the courage and determination of Juniper and Bear that a sense of positivity and uncrushable human spirit is always driving the action alongside the desperate scenes and struggles. When scientists discover that the siblings provide the key to fighting the disease, the pair must flee for their lives. As they journey into the unknown, they soon learn that there's cruelty in nature as well as beauty. Will they ever find the home they're searching for? I kept wondering if the reason given to people for Portia Steel’s absence was a cover up for her having succumbed to the disease herself, or maybe that was just wishful thinking on my part. I’m also wondering what became of Annie Rose, Ms Endo and Etienne, and hoping for the best.

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