Wild child by Annabel Tempest

This wild child wakes up wild, jumping and squeaking, roaring and stamping and talking just wildly. She chuckles and prances, dances and tiptoes, all with lots of noise and wildness. She can pounce and sneak, and cause lots of hullabaloo, she is chaotic and tremendous, and fiercely fabulous. Lots of wonderful words are used to describe this girl’s behaviour: she is a magical stew of descriptive words, words which kids will love to read for themselves, rolling the word around until they can say it well. I can imagine adults reading the story to a group of kids and all saying some of the words together, learning the new words and  confidently saying them as they read.

Wildness cannot last forever, and we see the wild child calming down, realising that her behaviour can be contained as she begins to speak in a quiet voice, being very still, and actively smiling and being kind.

The illustrations are fabulous, drawing the little girl and her family with an eye to the unusual. We see the girl displaying all her wild behaviour with a red outline behind her each time acting out the wildness. Each red shadow is in the form of an animal, so we see her eating her breakfast like a monkey, dressing like a peacock, stomping like and elephant and so on. Each animal has qualities paralleled by the child. And kids will love emulating that animal’s behaviour, as the book is read to them. Almost at the end of the book is a wonderful illustration of the wild child in her bath, all of her animals lined up on the rim, and the red outlines on the wall. The wildness is turned upside down as it becomes wild to be tidy and wild to be careful and loving. The concept of being wild means something quite different now. Children will enjoy the different meanings for the word wild, and think about when they have been noisily wild, and at other times wild in being calm and loving.

Themes: Wildness, Behaviour, Family, Disruption, Humour.

Fran Knight