The ending is a bit outlandish, but it’s done in such a way that I really want to believe in it. Certainly the kids are resourceful and clever. Plus, there’s a lot of incompetence in the system. That aside, I could not be more in love with Ilya’s dreams of becoming a ballet dancer. Follow the dark and stormy girl, the soldier (aka the dancing boy), the revolutionary, and the wolves as they journey through a Russian winter to discover how to be wild and how to be themselves, which may just be the most wild journey yet. You will never be tougher than you are now. Children are the toughest creatures on the planet. They endure.” Look at images of dog sleds on the internet and design a sled for Feo to enter St Petersburg. Make a fact file about wolves the words make no justice for sadness and heaviness that coated my heart after the realization that thiswas what she choose to sing for Grey as a goodbye

And then there was blind cold. Blind cold smelled of metal and granite. It took all the sense out of your brain and blew the snow into your eyes until they were glued shut and you had to rub spit into them before they would blink. Blind cold was forty degrees below zero. This was the kind of cold that you didn't sit down to think in, unless you wanted to be found dead in the same place in May or June.

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People say we can't do anything about the way the world is; they say it's set in stone. I say it looks like stone, but it's mostly paint and cardboard.” The Wolf Wilder is what children's fiction is all about. A sweeping landscape, an unforgettable main character, a budding revolution, and wolves!

You are not making this easy for yourself,” he said. His face was dispassionate as he gripped the side of the dining table and overturned it. Feo’s favorite mug crashed on the floor. Humans, on the whole, Feo could take or leave; there was only one person she loved properly, with the sort of fierce pride that gets people into trouble, or prison, or history books.” Family, good vs evil, revolution, bravery, corruption, fantasy, nature, love, freedom, difference, diversity.Ach!” Feo stumbled, and sat down on her own ankle. She said a word that made the stranger pushing his way past her raise his eyebrows and curl his lip. I found this book captivating and exciting. A fast paced struggle of a young girl accompanied by wolves and a boy to save those she loves makes for an excellent story of friendships and trust. The whole book was very fast paced and it is one of those stories you could just sit down on the sofa on an afternoon and just read. I will not,” said Marina. Her face looked empty of blood. It made Feo’s stomach ache; it made her wish that she had a gun to point at the man in the doorway. Another of Rundell’s amazing novels is The Good Thieves. To support the learning of this story, we have created a booklet of The Good Thieves Teacher Notes. These include a range of engaging activities to develop children’s descriptive and creative writing skills. It's ideal to use with your KS2 class! Five Fun Facts about Katherine Rundell:

It has made me realize that fantasy, Si Fi and action and adventure are not the only books that I like.In this world, St. Petersburg aristocrats keep wolves as status-symbol house pets. But wolves can only be tamed to a point. The wolves are overfed and indulged until the day they rebel against their capricious masters and revert to their -- well, wolfish -- instincts. This is where Feo and her fierce mother Marina come in. They teach the wolves to be wild again; they return them to their rightful home and proud, fierce natures. While the adults in this world are terrified of harsh retribution -- with the exception of Marina, who has been jailed for her defiance -- the children are still wild and bold enough enough to fight against unfairness. Yes, the children show the adults the way . . . a time-honoured theme in children's literature. Although I think the plot was at times a little odd, the magicalness of the writing made up for that and kept me gripped to the story.