The Wild Book

From one of Mexico's foremost authors comes a wondrous adventure story of a boy who goes to live with his kooky, book-obsessed uncle in a library where books have supernatural powers.

"We walked toward the part of the library where the air smelled as if it had been interred for years..... Finally, we got to the hallway where the wooden floor was the creakiest, and we sensed a strange whiff of excitement and fear. It smelled like a creature from a bygone time. It smelled like a dragon."

Thirteen-year-old Juan's summer is off to a terrible start. First, his parents separate. Then, almost as bad, Juan is sent away to his strange Uncle Tito's house for the entire break Who wants to live with an oddball recluse who has zigzag eyebrows, drinks fifteen cups of smoky tea a day, and lives inside a huge, mysterious library?

As Juan adjusts to his new life among teetering, dusty shelves, he notices something odd: the books move on their own He rushes to tell Uncle Tito, who lets his nephew in on a secret: Juan is a Princeps Reader, which means books respond magically to him, and he's the only one who can find the elusive, never-before-read Wild Book. But will Juan and his new friend Catalina get to The Wild Book before the wicked, story-stealing Pirate Book does?

An unforgettable adventure story about books, libraries, and the power of reading, The Wild Book is the young readers' debut by beloved, prize-winning Mexican author Juan Villoro. It has sold over one million copies in Spanish.

Author: Juan Villoro
Publisher: Yonder
Published: 11/14/2017
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.80w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9781632061478
Audience: Young Adult


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 09/01/2017
Foreword 09/26/2017

About the Author

Juan Villoro, arguably Mexico's most important living public intellectual, is the author of several novels, short story and essay collections, plays, chronicles, and children's books. He is also a weekly columnist for the Mexican newspaper Reforma and is called upon frequently to contribute to El País in Spain, and the Spanish edition of The New York Times. He has been a visiting professor at Yale, Princeton, and Stanford. His books in English are the short-story collection The Guilty, the novel The Reef, the middle grade novel The Wild Book, and God is Round, a volume of essays on soccer. He has written for the stage, winning several awards, among them the ACE Prize in Argentina. He is recipient of the José Donoso and Manuel Rojas Awards (Chile), the José Arguedas Award (Cuba), the Liber, Diario Madrid, Rey de España, Herralde, Ciudad de Barcelona and Vázquez Monlbán Awards (Spain), and the Villaurrutia, Mazatlán, Ibargüengoitia and López Velarde Awards (Mexico).

Lawrence Schimel (New York, 1971) is a full-time author, writing in both Spanish and English, who has published over one hundred twenty books in a wide range of genres. He is also a prolific literary translator. His own picture books have won a Crystal Kite Award from SCBWI and have been selected for the White Ravens from the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany and twice chosen for IBBY's Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities, among other awards and honors. His recent translations into Spanish include George Takei's graphic novel memoir Nos llamaron enemigo and Maggie Nelson's Bluets. Recent translations into English include Poems the wind blew in by Karmelo C. Iribarren, which won a Highly Commended Award in the 2020 CLiPPA, and picture book The Day Saida Arrived by Susana Gómez Redondo, illustrated by Sonja Wimmer, which is a finalist for the Jane Addams Children's Book Award. He was one of the original founders of WorldKidLitMonth and is a staunch advocate for translating works for young readers.