The Wolf Wilder

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when their home is burned and her mother imprisoned by general rakov, head of the tsar's imperial army, feo and her wolves escape into the bitter cold where feo plots her mother's rescue. Loosely based on the Slavic myth of Baba Yaga, this story is delightfully macabre and utterly engrossing.

Katherine spent her childhood in Africa and Europe before taking her degree at the University of Oxford and becoming a Fellow of All Souls College. It was really easy getting into Feo’s world, I could feel the cold of winter (even though it’s summer and hot as hell where I live), and the wolves breathing next to Feodora and every description was so visually pleasing. The Wolf Wilder is full of wonderful and memorable characters, but none so much as Feo herself, who is determined, a little bit wild and fiercely independent. She grew up in Zimbabwe, Brussels, and London, and is currently a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. Because of this, Feo is considered by many to be half-wild herself, with her mother and three half-domesticated wolves as her constant and only companions.

I liked it because the storyline was interesting and it was unlike anything I have ever read before. Feo’s unconditional love for the wolves even though she couldn’t control them showed the strong friendship and loyalty that this book is all about. It seemed unlikely, though, that anyone would ask her to: After all, wolves were, in general, on the other side of the equation. The pictures accompanying the book were beautifully drawn and were not too overbearing and didn't give away too much of the book. The adults, they want us to be quiet and careful, but we have a right to fight for the world we want to live in, and nobody has the right to tell us to be safe and sensible.

It's certainly been the year of the wolf because this is the second 'wolf' book to make my top ten books of the year. They were unhurried, licking their muzzles and forepaws, and then charged at her as a gang, knocking her off the pew and covering her chin and hands with wolf spit. As a gay man, whilst I find myself wishing I had discovered characters like Ilya when I was younger, I am also moved that he exists at all, in all his human complexity.This is a thrilling, emotional and utterly enthralling story (perhaps my favourite in recent years) and is the perfect read for children aged 9-11. I could empathise with all of the characters which helped to compensate for the fact that I couldn't relate to the landscape-having only experienced snow that doesn't cover a shoe.