Wild Boy

Rating:
Summary: Wild Boy a Wild Adventure
Review: Grade 6-8 Twelve-year-old Jesse flees his frontier community home to live in the mountains after he strikes his father with an axe handle during an argument. Initially, Jesse struggles as he faces life in the wild and as he tries to conceal himself from others. Gradually, with assistance from a patient mountain man, Larry, Jesse learns to hunt, to skin and cure animal pelts, and to build a cabin. He also learns about Billings, a dangerous mountain man determined to drive Jesse off the mountain. As Jesse begins winning the battles with his environment, and even hunts and kills a bear with Larry, he also begins to conquer his inner turmoil, brought about by thoughts of his mother, who abandoned the family several years earlier. As lost memories return, Jesse realizes why she left and is able to gain control of his temper. His inner wild boy then becomes tamed as he reconciles with his father and decides to go home.
Collier provides vivid details about frontier and mountain life while he describes the brutality of living in the wilderness. The author's use of dialogue and inner-monologue help develop Jesse's character. However, Collier's twangy, first-person dialect makes it occasionally difficult to wade through the book. But the danger Jesse confronts and action that takes place will keep readers interested in the "wild boy" and his battles with the mountain and himself.