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Summary
Summary
From the award-winning author of The Running Dream and Flipped comes a remarkable portrait of a girl who has hit rock bottom but begins a climb back to herself at a wilderness survival camp.
3:47 a.m. That's when they come for Wren Clemmens. She's hustled out of her house and into a waiting car, then a plane, and then taken on a forced march into the desert. This is what happens to kids who've gone so far off the rails, their parents don't know what to do with them anymore. This is wilderness therapy camp. Eight weeks of survivalist camping in the desert. Eight weeks to turn your life around. Yeah, right.
The Wren who arrives in the Utah desert is angry and bitter, and blaming everyone but herself. But angry can't put up a tent. And bitter won't start a fire. Wren's going to have to admit she needs help if she's going to survive.
"I read Wild Bird in one long mesmerized gulp. Wren will break your heart--and then mend it." --Nancy Werlin, National Book Award finalist for The Rules of Survival
"Van Draanen's Wren is real and relatable, and readers will root for her." --VOYA, starred review
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Fourteen-year-old Wren knows that she's in trouble when she awakens to a police officer hovering near her bed, but she has no idea what's in store for her. Wren's parents, in a desperate effort to save their daughter from a downward spiral of drug use and criminal behavior, have enrolled her in an eight-week wilderness program for at-risk youth. Whisked to Utah and dropped in the desert to join a group of teens and counselors, Wren endures a harrowing quest to find herself while battling extreme heat, limited water supplies, and rigorous hikes across the terrain. Mirroring physical pain and emotional torment as Wren recalls instances of betrayal and rejection, Van Draanen (The Secret Life of Lincoln Jones) shows how the teenager finds unexpected guidance from an elderly Paiute man, a heroin-addicted camper, and a patient counselor who teaches her how to start a fire in the wilderness, as well as within herself. Featuring evocative descriptions of landscape and psychological insight into a troubled teen, Van Draanen's story is engrossing and inspiring. Ages 12-up. Agent: Ginger Knowlton, Curtis Brown. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Problem teen Wren is muscled out of her house in the dead of night and dropped at a wilderness therapy program. Building shelter, finding water, and starting fires leaves far less time for hate and anger, and readers learn Wren's dramatic backstory as she learns to survive. The plot integrates (not always successfully) traditional Paiute culture through the program's elderly Native storyteller. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Loneliness, a bad crowd, and a downward spiral led 14-year-old Wren to this: while on a midnight bender, she's dragged to the airport and shipped off. Wren's parents, concerned for both Wren's health and safety and their own, have sent her to a wilderness therapy camp. Angry and resistant, Wren has no intention of learning how to find water or build a fire, until it becomes apparent that, out here, those skills are essential. Despite herself, Wren is slowly won over by the harsh beauty of the Utah desert and by her fellow campers. The story alternates between Wren's experiences in the desert and her flashbacks to the decisions and friends that led her there. Van Draanen, always versatile, frankly tackles teen drug use and recovery in a book that's less gritty, and often less bleak, than an Ellen Hopkins novel. Ultimately, everything comes together a bit neatly, but for readers who have come to root for Wren an out-of-control girl who learns to ask for help that's not such a bad thing.--Reagan, Maggie Copyright 2017 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 8 Up-Fourteen-year-old Wren Clemmens is awakened by cops at 3:47 a.m. and forcibly delivered to a wilderness therapy program in the southern Utah desert. It's no surprise that she is filled with anger, bitterness, and resentment-at her parents, her tattle-tale older sister, and the world. Wren had become caught in a downward spiral of drinking, drug abuse, and shoplifting, and her parents found themselves without other options. Now Wren is forced to confront the unforgiving elements and the stark results of her actions. Gradually, however, she lets down her defenses and learns who she wants to be. This is a strikingly raw and emotional story about making poor choices, facing the agonizing consequences, and ultimately experiencing the joy of getting a second chance. This first-person narrative perfectly captures Wren's cynical yet vulnerable teen voice. The protagonist's transformation is slow but realistic. Flashbacks flow naturally through the book, eventually revealing how Wren arrived at this point. The author deals with some heavy issues but never crosses the line into sensationalism. VERDICT A hopeful novel that demonstrates that people can change. Give to readers who enjoy survivalist tales.-Tim Wadham, Children's Literature Consultant, Puyallup, WA © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
In a riveting opening chapter, 14-year-old Wren is roused from sleep at 3:47 a.m., whisked to the airport, and flown to Utah for an 8-week wilderness therapy programa last-ditch effort by her concerned parents in response to her drug use, lying, shoplifting, and destructive behavior. Initially enraged and blaming everyone, Wren slowly begins to connect with the others in the group and feel some success at mastering building a fire, purifying water, and surviving. She also contemplates her past behavior: running heroin; slashing her father's tires and her sister's clothes; carving a swastika in her mother's cherished piano. She begins to understand what real friends areunlike those who used and mistreated herand to consider the kind of person she wants to be. Traditional tales told by Mokov, an elderly Paiute who visits the camp, add dimension to the story, although the appropriation of Native tropes (campers go on a "quest" as a culminating exercise; Wren braids a feather in her hair in imitation of Mokov) is problematic. Wren and her family are evidently white; one of the other campers is identified as African-American. Van Draanen makes palpable both the outer desert landscape and Wren's intense inner emotions. A memorable book about family, friendship, forgiveness, and second chances. (Fiction. 12-16) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.