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Summary
Summary
A high-stakes middle grade historical adventure through Yosemite National Park by the New York Times- bestselling author of Masterpiece .
Twelve-year-old Lizzie Durango and her dad have always had a zoo to call their home. Lizzie spends her days watching the animals and taking note of their various behaviors. Though the zoo makes for a unique home, it's a hard place for Lizzie to make lasting friends. But all this changes one afternoon when she finds Tyler Briggs, a runaway who has secretly made the zoo his makeshift home. The two become friends and, just as quickly, stumble into a covert investigation involving the zoo wolves who are suddenly dying. Little do they know, this mystery will draw them into a high-stakes historical adventure involving the legend of John Muir as they try to navigate safely while lost in Yosemite National Park.
A Christy Ottaviano Book
Author Notes
Elise Broach is the author of the acclaimed novel Shakespeare's Secret, as well as several picture books. Her newest book is entitled, Masterpiece. She lives in Easton, Connecticut, with her family.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Twelve-year old Lizzie loves living at a California wildlife park (her father is head zookeeper), knowing she gets to do things that "no other kid ever got to experience." After she meets Tyler, a foster home runaway who has been hiding out at the zoo, he tells her about what happens there at night, including a mysterious visitor to the new Wolf Woods exhibit who may be making the wolves sick. Broach's (the Superstition Mountain series) intrepid protagonists engage in sleuthing expeditions, first to determine the cause of the wolves' illness and then to discover the location of John Muir's lost cabin in Yosemite-moments Ratteree (Lilliput) captures in evocative pencil illustrations of human interactions with the natural world. Lizzie's choice to follow Tyler into the wilderness ("He'd been left too often in the past, and the past was a thing you carried with you all the time, like a burr stuck to your heel") offers just one example of the ways Broach's characters wrestle with ethical questions throughout this gratifying, thought-provoking tale. Ages 9-14. Author's agent: Edward Necarsulmer IV, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. Illustrator's agent: Marietta Zacker, Gallt & Zacker Literary. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
In this mystery-adventure, twelve-year-old Lizzie Durango is fascinated by the wolves in the (fictional) John Muir Wildlife Park near Yosemite, where her father is zookeeper. One day, Lizzie notices a boy stealing a childs lunch and realizes that he is living at the zoo. Despite his gruff demeanor, Tyler shares Lizzies love of the animals, and they become friends. When the wolves begin to mysteriously get sick right after Tyler notices odd comings and goings at night, they work together to solve the mystery. One of Broachs strengths, as in Missing on Superstition Mountain (rev. 7/11), is creating child characters who are intelligent, resourceful, and willing to take action, so Lizzie and Tyler end up climbing fences, facing wild animals, and solving a historical mystery about John Muirs lost cabin, all as they are getting to know each other. Scattered quotes from Muir, the superstition surrounding Tenaya Canyon in Yosemite, and the competing interests of zoos protecting animals but keeping them prisoners provide potential topics for readers to follow up on, and Broach explains clearly in her authors note which elements are fiction and which are based on fact. The wry humor of Lizzies keen observations of the human animals at the zoo and the page-turning adventure give this novel solid middle-grade appeal. susan dove lempke (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Twelve-year-old Lizzie and her dad live near Yosemite National Park at the zoo he directs, the John Muir Wildlife Park. Keeping a Muir-related summer journal as a school assignment, Lizzie records her observations of the park's seven wolves. Soon she discovers Tyler, a biracial boy who has been secretly sleeping on the grounds since running away from his foster family. Initially prickly, he comes to trust his new friend. When several wolves become ill, Lizzie and Tyler team up to investigate the cause. Unexpectedly, they end up spending a couple of nights on their own in Yosemite. Part friendship story, part mystery, and part survival adventure, this engaging chapter book makes the most of its two unusual settings. Attractive drawings illustrate the text, while a two-page map offers a bird's-eye view of Yosemite Valley. Information about Muir and quotes from him are scattered throughout the book, and the appended author's note also discusses the naturalist. Fans of Broach's Superstition Mountain trilogy will want to try her latest, with its western locale and intriguing jacket illustration.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2016 Booklist
