The Last Wild Place

by Rosa Jordan

Chip Martin is growing up-and finding the adjustment to be a challenge. With his mother preoccupied by a new romance with an old friend, and his own best friend Luther barely speaking to him, Chip feels friendless and alone. One day, in the marshy woods behind the Old Place, an abandoned farm near his home Chip discovers something unbelievable - a family of Florida panthers that has been driven out of their home in the Everglades and dangerously close to human settlement. Alarmed when he hears that the last few acres of the woods are to be cleared to make way for a meatpacking plant, Chip concocts a plan to protect the panthers. He eventually learns that he has more friends than he thought, and they all want the same thing-to find a safe home for the wild animals. And if they're lucky, a safe place for themselves, too.

Genres: Animals, Childrens

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2008

About the author

Immigrated to Canada, 1974. Education: University of California, Los Angeles, B.A.; University of Guanajuato, Mexico, M.A. Addresses: Home: Rossland, British Columbia, Canada.

AWARDS:

Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Special nomination, Parents' Choice Award, and First-Place Award, National Council on Family, all 1997, all for The Sweetest Place; Silver Birch Honours Book designation, and Red Maple Award finalist, both 2005, and Chocolate Lily Award nomination, 2006-07, all for Lost Goat Lane.

Reviews

[Catherine Mustread]

Reminded me of Hiaasen's Hoot, although not quite as humorous, but included more details about endangered animal relocation, in this case Florida panthers. Also added element of homelessness / loss of habitat due to Hurricane Katrina with some families temporarily living in the community. Language seemed a bit stilted, but still enjoyed this family/friendship story, third about this family following Lost Goat Lane and The Goatnappers. Although this works fine as a stand alone novel, I would have preferred reading the others first.

[Stuart Levy]

An attempt to be like Hiaasen's Hoot, but not as successful.

[Kim]

Gr 5-8-Jordan returns with another eco-friendly novel featuring the Martin family. Now that Justin is away at college, Chip, 12, is the man of the house. His mother has become romantically involved with his friend Luther's uncle. The town's community center is providing a temporary home to families who were displaced by a recent Gulf Coast hurricane, and as Luther befriends some of those kids, he seems to be distancing himself from Chip. Seeking solace at a deserted property that he and Luther discovered several years earlier, Chip makes an amazing discovery: two Florida panther cubs have somehow traveled from the Everglades to the abandoned site and have established a home there. Chip has visions of befriending the animals, but the future of all the wildlife in the marshy sanctuary is unexpectedly put into danger when a construction crew arrives to raze the barn and turn the property into a meat-packing plant. When the adults fail to come up with an immediate solution to protect the animals, Chip and his classmates take matters into their own hands. Reminiscent of Carl Hiaasen's Hoot (Knopf, 2002), Wild Place is an empowering story of friendship and kids who step up to make a difference. Sprinkled liberally with environmental messages, it manages to avoid crossing the line into didacticism. The characters are fully realized and the plot moves along at a good clip. While readers of Jordan's first two stories will enjoy meeting up with familiar characters, the novel easily stands alone.-Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

[Jake]

I thought that this book was a good read. It had a lot of detailed characters in the book that exersized their emotions so that the book was more detailed. The only thing that I didn't like about the book was after they ended the purpose of the book, they kind of dragged the rest of the story plot around like they were getting bored. This kind-of was the reason I didn't rate this book 4 or 5 stars. Other than this reason, I really liked the book! I really liked the setting of the story and thought that the climax was great. The climax of the story started out okay, but then got much better by the middle of the book. The middle-end part of the book was pretty cool, but the very end was kind of a drag because they could of ended the book at least in 5 different places. Overall, I think that this book was a very nice read. It just needs a few adjustments though.

[Susan]

Great "boy book" although girls would enjoy it just as much. Chip, the main character, spends his summer exploring "the Old Place" near his home in the Everglades before he will start his seventh grade school year. Chip and his best friend and neighbor Luther both worry about the possibility of their mothers remarrying and uprooting the families and, thus, their tight friendship. Their exploration of the Old Place and its back woods leads to the discovery of a family of endangered Florida panthers, and Chip and Luther plot to save the big cats from the dangers of civilization.

[Ryan]

I would recomend this book for nature lovers and people who liked Hoot, Flush, and Scat. the book would be good for for younger kids unless an older person is a nature lover.
My favorite character was Chip because he loves wildlife. I could really connect with him because I love wildlife just like he does.
My favorite scene was when Chip and luther went back into the "jungle" after their moms had told them not to. This is where they found out why the rabbit population had decreased over the past two weeks.

[Bmack]

This book caught my eye because I am looking for books for my upcoming booktalk for Library Life. It is about two friends who find that a panther family is living in the woods behind their homes. It is a story of their fight to save the land and the panthers from a developer who wants to build a meat packing plant on the property. It is definitely a good read.

[Krista]

I enjoyed this book. I read it for a program that we do at our school introducing new praire pasque books so it was a book that I just given. I was glad that this book was given to me to read. I like being able to connect to the stories I read and it reminded me of alot of places in my area.

[Mrs. Kathy]

Good book when discussing endangered species and lost habitat. Takes place in south Florida near the Everglades.

[Lorraine Stinson]

Florida setting with a 7th grader dealing with typical family problems who discovers a family of Fl. panthers. Similar to Scat but not as interesting. Characters seem flat to me.

[Judy Moody]

It does have a Florida connection and I'm always looking for books boys will like, but this was a bit slow for me.

[Jeffrey Mizrachi]

I like this book it is so good.