The Rewilders

Wolves, Lynx, friendships, the rugged Scottish landscape, and a case of feline misidentification all come together in The Rewilders, a most enjoyable novel with a twist by Lindsay Littleson.

Set in rural Scotland, the story follows Esme who, rather than getting to attend her best friend's birthday party, has to stay the weekend with her gran. But to add to her woes, her gran has plans for her involving an abandoned cat called Cora which her gran found while visiting a nearby estate. This turns out to be a Lynx kit, and Esme and Callum, a boy from her class who is known to be the 'bad boy' of the school, are tasked with secretly re-wilding Cora in the estate where she was found; a journey that will take them days trekking across the Scottish landscape.  But this landscape can be treacherous and unforgiving as well as beautiful, and there are wolves howling nearby. These two disparate teens will need to work together if they are to complete this task. Will they succeed?

You'll have to read this book to find out but Rewilders is a great read! It's a brilliant adventure with a journey that will change the lives of the Callum and Elsie. Each chapter is told by either Callum or Elsie, allowing the reader an insight into these teens and their backgrounds as they put up with each other to complete their mission. I particularly found Cullum's thoughts and conversation about him and his experiences being a foster child very insightful, making this novel useful for teachers or teens looking for novels with foster child representation in them.

It was interesting to see how Callum and Elsie changed over the course the journey, especially Elsie and her thoughts about friendship, and how we can allow our friends' judgements to cloud our view of others without really knowing them - a real epiphany moment for Elsie.

There is much to think about in this novel, too, including the theme of rewilding, a debate that is very current in Scotland at the moment. Information about this comes in through discussions Callum and Elsie have on their journey and are very matter of fact. Persuasion on this topic isn't the aim, but information is. And this novel is a good starting point for investigating further the topic of rewilding. I enjoyed the descriptions of the Scottish landscape and seeing Cora become familiar with being in the wild.

The use of Scots language throughout the novel is great to see! But don't worry if you don't know your bampot, from a stramash or lummox - there's a handy glossary at the back of the book to keep you right. While not written entirely in Scots, the novel gives you everyday words and phrases you may come across in some parts of Scotland.

This is a very enjoyable novel, full of adventure, nature friendship and self-discovery. So take a walk on the wild side and read this book - watch out for the wolves!

200 pages / Reviewed by Stephen Leitch, school librarian

Suggested Reading Age 9+