Wildoak

"Reads like a classic. I loved it.” –Pam Muñoz Ryan, author of the award-winning bestsellers, Esperanza Rising and Echo

A chance encounter between a young girl who stutters and an abandoned snow leopard cub creates a tender and spellbinding story -- perfect for fans of Pax and The One and Only Ivan.

An endangered forest. An abandoned snow leopard. A child who only feels comfortable talking to animals. When fates collide, the unbelievable can happen…

Maggie Stephens’ stutter makes school especially hard. She will do almost anything to avoid speaking in class or calling attention to herself. So when her unsympathetic father threatens to send her away for so-called ‘treatment,’ she reluctantly agrees to her mother’s intervention plan: a few weeks in the fresh air of Wildoak Forest, visiting a grandfather she hardly knows. It is there, in an extraordinary twist of fate, that she encounters an abandoned snow leopard cub, an exotic gift to a wealthy Londoner that proved too wild to domesticate. But once the cub’s presence is discovered by others, danger follows, and Maggie soon realizes that time is running out, not only for the leopard, but for herself and the forest as well.

Told in alternating voices, Wildoak shimmers with beauty, compassion, and unforgettable storytelling as it explores the delicate interconnectedness of the human, animal, and natural worlds.