The Last Wild

This page-turning debut is a children’s classic in the making!

In a world where animals no longer exist, twelve-year-old Kester Jaynes feels as if he hardly exists either. He’s been locked away in a home for troubled children and is unable to speak a word. Then one night, a flock of talking pigeons and a bossy cockroach come to help him escape, and he discovers that he can speak — to them. And the animals need him. The pigeons fly Kester to the home of the only creatures in the land who have survived — the Last Wild. Their leader, a wise stag, asks Kester for his help. Together, they embark on a great journey, joined along the way by a determined wolf cub, the General of all cockroaches, a mouse with a ritual for everything, and a stubborn, curious girl named Polly. The animals saved Kester Jaynes. But can Kester save the animals?

Eoin Colfer calls The Last Wild “a hugely inventive adventure.” It is also a quest, a comedy, a tearjerker, and an environmental fable. Most of all, it is a remarkable debut.