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|title=The Last Wild

|sort=Last Wild, The

|publisher=Quercus

|date=March 2013

|website=http://www.pierstorday.co.uk

|video=ODQzrJvdP3o

|summary=Kester hasn't spoken since his mother died, and he's been locked away in the dreary, soulless Spectrum Hall Academy for Challenging Children. He's not sure why he's there, or why his father never visits, but when a cockroach starts talking to him, he suspects it's probably because he's gone mad.

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The animals and the plants have all died, killed by the red-eye: only insects are immune. And the humans have all retreated to the Island, terrified that they too will catch the horrible disease. As there is nothing else to eat they live on formula, a sort of bright pink gruel which, no matter what they call it, always tastes of prawn cocktail crisps. The gloop is made by Factorium, the world's biggest food company, which has gradually taken over the running of the whole Island, including schools, hospitals and eventually the government itself.

The quest-journey is not an unusual theme in literature for both adults and children, and the canny reader will guess some of the plotlines before they are revealed. But to be bothered by that would be to miss the point. This story is about the relationship between the travelling companions, and about how a young boy grows in maturity as he learns to shoulder an extraordinary destiny. It has as dark side, as humanity is shown in all its greed and destructiveness, but most of all this is a charming tale, based on an original and intriguing premise and with more than a whiff of magic about it.

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