The Last Wild boasts some of the most memorable characters in children’s books to date. There’s the Oh So Moontruggy white pigeon – some of his best quotes below… an amazing book, truly captivating and easy to get completely submerged in Piers Torday's writing magic. Definitely plays with your emotions and I would definitely recommend reading this phenomenal book. This should have led to a promising career in canine detective fiction but at school and university I became completely distracted by theatre & comedy, which is where I then started my working life - at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, producing plays and sketch shows, and occasionally writing them too. A whole English teaching sequence linked to the book The Last Wild by Piers Torday (Shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Award and nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal in 2013). Hello Yellow - 80 Books to Help Children Nurture Good Mental Health and Support With Anxiety and Wellbeing -

I liked the beginning of the book and the description, but , as I got deeper into the story it became boring and monotonous therefore I did not get to finish the book .I also did not like this book because it wasn't the kind of genre I prefer. I would recommend this book to children in years 4-6 and also people who like adventure stories The Last Wild is a middle-grade dystopian novel. It might be a little bit too sad and gloomy for children but I really liked it. It is set in a world where a virus is spreading. But it only affects animals. It is a story of a young boy Kester who realises one day that he can speak to animals and he decides to help them. My first proper story was written age 13, which starts –‘Sam was a dog. And like most dogs, he was a detective.’ In between, I have just been trained as a Volunteer Reader by VRH and can’t wait to start helping children in my local London schools to enjoy books and stories like I did when I was younger. Kester lives in a land in quarantine. A deadly virus has killed all the animals except pests and it's expected to be equally dangerous to humans. But when Kester realises he can talk to the pests, he finds they have great hope invested in him.In a dystopic world where every animal found is killed due to virus, Kester lives at the Spectrum Hall Academy for Challenging Children, and the one thing he is unable to do is speak, despite the academy warren's many attempts to get him to. This is a very amusing book and also very addictive. When I started reading, I could not put the book down! One of the funniest characters(I think)v is the white pigeon. He always says bad things and always the wrong things aswell.

Thus starts Kester’s journey to rescue the last animals left alive. Kester has a gift: the ability to talk and listen to animals. Carried by pigeons to The Last Wild, he reluctantly agrees to help the last remaining animals find a cure for red-eye. Along the way, he learns a lot about himself, friendship, humans, and animals. Piers Torday began his career in theatre and then television as a producer and writer. His bestselling first book for children, The Last Wild, was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Award and nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal as well as numerous other awards. His second book, The Dark Wild, won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. The third book in the trilogy, The Wild Beyond, was published in 2015 to critical acclaim. His next book for children, There May Be a Castle, was published in October 2016.Piers Torday was born in Northumberland, which is possibly the one part of England where more animals live than people. After school and university he worked as a producer and writer in theatre, live comedy and TV, including developing comedy shows like Argumental for Dave and the recent Boom Town for BBC Three. In regular demand as a speaker at schools and festivals, Piers is also a reading helper with Beanstalk, a former judge on the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a Patron of Reading at Heathmere School and a trustee of the Pleasance Theatre. April 2013 Debut of the Month Do not miss this magical and astounding debut: The Last Wild by Piers Torday (yes mums and dads, his Dad Paul wrote Salmon Fishing in the Yemen) - a wonderfully imaginative tale of magical self-realisation and endless possibility. A truly inspirational book for kids that they'll love. It also introduces a bold new voice in children’s fiction with a story destined to be loved by readers of all ages. Perfect too, for children who love Michael Morpurgo, Eva Ibbotson and Roald Dahl. The Last Wild' is about a boy who can't speak to people since his mother died but discovers that he can talk to animals. Because he can talk to animals he has to save them from Mr stone, the head of Factorium,(a company that is culling all the animals to stop the red eye, a horrible disease that is killing all the animals apart from pests.) Factorium also make food from chemicals that are not contaminated by the red eye. In 'The Last Wild', I really liked that Kester could talk to and und... This book is not a once off! It is a trilogy and I would urge you to buy them all together because they are very difficult to put down! I know the other two books discuss more about ocean pollution, and other such issues, which I cannot wait to read about and see what Torday has to see!

And when it is written with such wild imagination and vivid skill as Torday's 'The Last Wild', the knowledge that this story is not ended and that there is more to come is both a wonderful and awful thing to deal with as a selfish reader. Nay: It seems the supporting characters only exist just because they need to. The lead character has a new friend. Polly is her name. I want to get to know her more but I cannot seem to understand who she is. She is a friend, that's it. Nothing more. I was a total bookworm and read everything I could lay my hands on, from Beatrix Potter to Babar, Moomintrolls to Hobbits. Some of my favourite books included Stig Of The Dump, The Land of Green Ginger and The Silver Sword. I haven't read a book this good and interesting since The Hunger Games ... an edge-of-your-seat fast-paced read Guardian ChildrenMove stealthily and elude predators hunting you down. Create distractions and use your environment to your advantage. Make use of items you’ve discovered to give yourself options in each encounter. Outmanoeuvre, distract, run, and if all else fails, hide. Thank you for your kind words. I hope that your class enjoy this book, mine certainly did. Hide replies

THE LAST WILD is a whimsical tale, the story of a boy discovering his voice. It reminded me a little of THE LITTLE PRINCE,, maybe because of the cover and chapter heading illustrations, and because like that book, THE LAST WILD can be read on different levels. It’s one for both kids and adults.Although there is a lot in the book that is grim, the heroes and their friends are wonderful - diverse, vulnerable, imperfect, funny, loyal and very brave. Due to some very long drives we heard the rest of the book this weekend. I found myself just as absorbed as the kids, caring very much how things would turn out. We were not disappointed! For my family it was important that we listened together. I think it may have been too frightening otherwise. There are many deep themes and ideas, and it has been good to talk about these along the way, and afterwards. But soon enough, thanks to an unexpected pigeon visit, Kester will discover that he can indeed speak and that he has an incredible gift: the ability to communicate with animals. He is destined to be the leader of the wild and save all the animals from what humans have done to them. And maybe even save humans from the damage they have brought upon themselves... I came to 'The Last Wild' a little blindly. I was conscious that it was a Carnegie nominee for 2014 and that I'd seen a lot of positive talk online about it. And that was pretty much it, and now that I have finished it, I am wondering how best to phrase my feelings about this painterly, immense book.