Wild Bird

Fourteen-year-old Wren Clemmens is pulled from her room in the early hours of the morning, driven to the airport, and taken to the desert in Utah, where she will be forced to participate in an eight-week wilderness survival program. Wren is smart, and figures out how to find water and make fire - but can she figure out what's going on inside her? That is the challenge. Along the way, Wren sometimes rejects help angrily, but she learns quickly, and once she graduates from Rabbit to Coyote, she makes friends with the other girls, especially Hannah - who helps her see that her friend Meadow wasn't a friend at all.

Near the end of her time in the desert, Wren goes on a quest by herself, during which she faces coyotes and also her own show more thoughts and memories: the way people treated her, how she treated them, the impact of her actions, and how she wants to be a person in the world. She writes the letters to her family that she needs to write, and in the end, it's not just her mother or father who comes to collect her - it's both of them, and her sister and brother as well. Wren has transformed, and has hope for her future.

Quotes

"A little rain goes a long way when the land is parched. Sometimes it doesn't take much for what's dormant to bloom." (Michelle to group, 164)

"I like how I feel strong now. All I ever felt before was angry. I used to think it was the same thing, but it's not." (Mia to Wren, 171)

Trust between people is a convoluted thing, because which comes first - trusting or being trusted? (215)

"There's a wisdom passed through the ages that says that if we walk far but are angry as we journey, we travel nowhere." (Mokov to Wren, 237)

Cursing how this wide-open place traps you inside your thoughts. (261)

I've never even thought about who I want to be. The question has always been What do you want to be? You know...when you grow up? (270) show less

A painful, but remarkable book, most highly recommended to young adults and parents.

Wren's family, except her younger brother completely fail her at one of the most painful times in a child's life. First they move her, then they abandon her. Many families find it necessary to move their children to new places far from their comfort zones, but the level of disconnect all in her family (except her younger brother) show her is painful even to a listener long past the preteen and teen years. I'm glad I stuck it out to the end, but it wasn't easy.

Wren is a mess, but when she finally decides to make the most of a bad situation, you'll pull for her all the way.

Summary:
Wren Clemens, a 14-year-old is sent to a wilderness therapy camp.
A show more remarkable portrait of a girl who has hit rock bottom but begins a climb back to herself at a wilderness survival camp.
Wren Clemmens, is hustled out of her house and into a waiting car, then a plane, and then taken on a forced march into the desert. This is what happens to kids who’ve gone so far off the rails, their parents don’t know what to do with them anymore. This is wilderness therapy camp. Eight weeks of survivalist camping in the desert. Eight weeks to turn your life around. Yeah, right.

The Wren who arrives in the Utah desert is angry and bitter, and blaming everyone but herself. But angry can’t put up a tent. And bitter won’t start a fire. Wren’s going to have to admit she needs help if she’s going to survive. show less

A moving tale that'll rip your heart out, trounce it a time or two, and help you find the scattered pieces to create a masterpiece that is all YOU.

Wren (and her family, for that matter) do not have an easy time of it. There's physical moves, social climbing, and what should have been new beginnings... that just didn't turn out the way it was intended. Seeking acceptance outside of herself, Wren falls in with the wrong crowd... and without a solid support system, she's almost lost to them all. Good thing they weren't ready to give up on her. Despite the fact she's dragged kicking and screaming into the desert to face goodness only knows what with who knows who, that lack of kid gloves may be just what the doctor ordered. The requirement show more of depending on herself as well as learning to say "yes, I need help" are just a few of the keys to unlocking her past, understanding her present, and realizing her future.

It's truly a journey of heart, mind, and soul, that leads to surprising realizations for Wren (and the Grizzly Girls) ... but will also spark conversations in our here and now. Great read for Middle Grade fans and beyond for the story itself as well as the messages it brings.


**copy received for review show less

At first I wasn't sure that I was going to like this book - 14-year-old Wren, the main character & narrator of the story, wasn't very likeable. In the end, though, it is an uplifting story and I thought that the author made a bold & important choice with Wren. Unlike many of the other girls at the camp, Wren doesn't have a dysfunctional family or a history of some terrible abuse which caused her to turn to drugs and alcohol. That doesn't make her pain and anger any less real or her need for this intervention less urgent but it does make her a character that more readers (both teens and adults) can identify with.

Being an adult reader of this YA novel, in some ways I couldn't help feeling sympathy for her parents - I can imagine the show more situation at the start of the book as being one parents of teenagers have nightmares about. show less

Wren is the middle daughter of her family. She finds herself alone after a move to a new town and new school. Her older sister no longer had time for her and her parents are busy working. She does love telling her younger brother stories but she has no friends in school. One day a girl named Meadow befriends her and the friendship leads her into using pot, drinking alcohol, carrying heroin to users, and shoplifting to support her own habit. She wakes up after an evening of raging to find herself escorted to a wilderness survival camp in Utah. This is the story of Wren's experience as she fights her way back. Read this (audio) in one day. It was a very moving story.

Wren gets taken in the middle of the night to a juvenile boot camp in the desert. When she's grabbed she's angry, drunk, and her parents are kind of at the end of their ropes. Over the eight weeks she's in the program, she transforms physically and emotionally.
Her change begins to transform her relationship with herself and the relationship with the rest of her family.
There is action in the outdoor survival things she learns. But a lot of the change is intra and interpersonal.
Compelling.

At first I wasn't sure that I was going to like this book - 14-year-old Wren, the main character & narrator of the story, wasn't very likeable. In the end, though, it is an uplifting story and I thought that the author made a bold & important choice with Wren. Unlike many of the other girls at the camp, Wren doesn't have a dysfunctional family or a history of some terrible abuse which caused her to turn to drugs and alcohol. That doesn't make her pain and anger any less real or her need for this intervention less urgent but it does make her a character that more readers (both teens and adults) can identify with.

Being an adult reader of this YA novel, in some ways I couldn't help feeling sympathy for her parents - I can imagine the show more situation at the start of the book as being one parents of teenagers have nightmares about. show less