Teen Fiction - Adventure & Survival, Teen Fiction - Boys & Young Men

Wild Man Island

Name: Wild Man Island
Author: Will Hobbs
ISBN: 9780380733101

by Will Hobbs

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Overview

After fourteen-year-old Andy slips away from his kayaking group to visit the wilderness site of his archaeologist father's death, a storm strands him on Admiralty Island, Alaska, where he manages to survive, encounters unexpected animal and human inhabitants, and looks for traces of the earliest prehistoric immigrants to America.

Synopsis

The land was slipping away,
the wind was howling,
and I was in a world of trouble.

0n the last day of a sea kayak trip in southeast Alaska, fourteen-year-old Andy Galloway paddles away from the group. He's on a mission of the heart. His father, an archeologist, died only a few miles away. A sudden gale propels Andy across the strait. He swims ashore, freezing and barefoot, onto Admiralty Island, an immense wilderness of forests, rain, and bears.

When hope of rescue fades, Andy starts walking. Starvation leads him further into the wild and into danger. He encounters a dog running with wolves, and later a man dressed in cedar-bark clothing, carrying a stone-tipped spear. The Wild Man vanishes into the forest, but the dog reappears and leads Andy to ... the Wild Man's lair, at the mouth of a cave.

It's fear that drives Andy into the cave and to the adventure of a lifetime. What's at stake are the discoveries Andy's father died trying to find, the answers to the most exciting puzzle in American archeology — who were the first Americans?

Publishers Weekly

For the younger set, Little Raccoon by Lilian Moore, illus. by Doug Cushman, unites three previously published nature adventures (Little Raccoon and the Thing in the Pool; Little Raccoon and the Outside World; and Little Raccoon and No Trouble at All). Humorous b&w vignettes appear throughout the beginning chapter book. (Apr.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

About the Author, Will Hobbs

Will Hobbs is the award-winning author of eighteen novels, including Far North, Crossing The Wire, and Go Big Or Go Home.

Take Me To The River began with the author's week-long canoe trip through the remote Lower Canyons of the Rio Grande on the Texas/Mexico border.

Will's fondness for Texas goes back to his high school years in San Antonio. A graduate of Stanford University, Will lives with his wife, Jean, in Durango, Colorado.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

KLIATT

To quote KLIATT's March 2002 review of the hardcover edition: Hobbs sets this survival story off the coast of Alaska, where he himself has had experience sea kayaking. Andy, the protagonist, tells this in the first person, making the adventure all the more vivid and exciting for the reader. He chooses an Adventure Alaska trip near the place where his father died some years before while studying caves for evidence of human habitation before humans could have walked across the straits from Siberia. While Andy is away from the group to make a pilgrimage to the place his father died, a storm whips up and Andy and his kayak are blown far off course. This struggle against the sea and wind is filled with excitement, and then Andy finds a refuge on an island that seems deserted. There are bears around, wolves, and inexplicably, a wild man and a large black Newfoundland dog. The rest of the plot revolves around Andy's attempts to find out who this man is and how he got there. Could it be Andy's father? He definitely is well educated and interested in archeology. Andy's resourcefulness and his courage help him to persevere until he finds out the answers as he awaits rescue. Again, Hobbs proves his skill at placing YA readers into wilderness environments as they follow the adventures of his teenage heroes. KLIATT Codes: JS*—Exceptional book, recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2002, HarperTrophy, 184p. map.,
— Claire Rosser

VOYA

On a sea-kayaking trip to Alaska's southeastern coastal region, Andy Galloway sets out to visit the site where his father died gathering evidence to support a revolutionary archaeological theory. Heaved onto the shore of Admiralty Island by an unexpected tempest, Andy must survive the dangers of Alaska's rainforest. There, fleeing grizzlies, Andy encounters a wild man who appears to hail from the Stone Age. Plunged into an archaeological adventure when he discovers an ancient burial chamber, Andy is forced to choose between rescue and solving the mystery of America's first inhabitants. A well-paced adventure, this novel combines survival saga, mystery, and archaeological expedition. Generated by Hobbs's archaeological interests and experiences kayaking along Alaska's island shores, the book's plot is plausible and its setting realistic. Readers sense that "nature still rules on Admiralty," yet the vivid landscape descriptions that awe and inspire in Hobbs' Far North (Morrow, 1996/VOYA February 1997) and The Big Wander (Atheneum, 1992/VOYA December 1992) are missing. Absent too are the poignant relationships between characters that distinguish his finest stories. Hobbs's fans captivated by characters such as Gabe, Raymond, Clay, and Cloyd might find this title somewhat unsatisfying, but readers who enjoyed Ghost Canoe (Morrow, 1997/VOYA August 1997) similarly will be engaged. Those interested in archaeology will be pleased particularly with the book's further reading citations. Both avid and reluctant readers will overlook the peppering of editorial mistakes as they traipse through the wilderness with Andy. Hobbs's renown among avid and reluctant readers ensures the popularity of hislatest effort, and librarians will want to stock this title on middle-level fiction shelves. PLB Korthals

From The Critics

Fourteen-year-old Andy Galloway is with his mother on a sea kayak trip off the coast of Alaska. After going by himself on a personal pilgrimage to see the site of his archeologist father's death, Andy is marooned on Admirality Island. He soon discovers that he is not alone, but is being observed by a man living on the island, hoping to avoid detection. This adventure is driven by secrets only the man—who befriends Andy—knows. Together, they learn about the origins and arrival of the first Americans to land on this remote island off the coast of Alaska. Consistent with Hobbs' other Alaska and Northwest Territory stories, readers ages ten-years-old and up will find this novel exciting to read, and historically informative. Hobbs provides much good context for his fictional narrative. A great read for all. 2002, HarperCollins, 184 pp., Thompson

Children's Literature

Yet another top-notch thriller from Hobbs (Far North, Jason's Gold, Down The Yukon, among others,) this is an emotionally charged novel about a 14-year-old boy who slips away from a kayaking trip to search for a memory of his late father. Andy Galloway could never have imagined what he would find instead on a remote Southeast Alaska island. The book is crammed with detailed perils such as high winds, strong tides and sea lions that ram kayaks, and Andy soon finds that the wrong choice, or even a wrong step, could kill him quite handily. He is totally on his own if he wants to survive, or is he? Is he hallucinating when he sees the "wild man," and does the man want to help him, or keep him from telling anyone what he has seen on the island? As usual, Hobbs' details are spot-on, from the deadly lethargy of hypothermia to the body-clenching pain of starvation. Yet he's also good at describing the beauty of this lethal landscape and the satisfaction that comes from having seen a difficult task through to the end. One quibble, though¾when a character is told he cannot have a dog on the island because it might breed with the local wolf pack, why didn't anyone think of suggesting that the dog be neutered? Overall, though, this is a superb piece of storytelling that should make young readers go back to the library or bookstore in search of everything else Hobbs has written. 2002, HarperCollins,
— Donna Freedman

School Library Journal

Gr 5-9-Set in contemporary Alaska, this adventure yarn follows 14-year-old Andy as he nears the safe conclusion of a guided sea kayaking trip with the nagging thought that he ought to visit the nearby site of his father's accidental death nine years earlier. Sneaking off from the group on the last day, he is soon blown away by a nasty storm. Washed ashore on wild and remote Admiralty Island, he faces starvation, food poisoning, cold, bears, wolves, and the mysterious bearded giant of a man he calls "the Wild Man." Neatly tying together strands of the plot involving his archaeologist father's theories about the early exploration and settlement of North America with episodes that involve caving, wildlife, and a huge Newfoundland dog, Hobbs resolves the story's complexities in ways that protect the characters' integrity and, to a large extent, readers' need for credibility. The author's note explains the mixture of personal experience and collected facts and fictions on which the book hangs in such a way that interested readers might well be persuaded to speculate about the theories posited or investigate those theories with additional research of their own.-Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Junior High School, Iowa City, IA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

In Hobbs's (Down the Yukon, 2001, etc.) latest wilderness survival tale, a Colorado teenager stranded on Alaska's remote Admiralty Island not only encounters bears, wolves, and a hermit with Stone Age weapons, but makes a startling archaeological discovery to boot. Separated from his fellow kayakers by a sudden gale, Andy fetches up ashore, freezing, soaking, and with no supplies except a credit card. Things go downhill from there, especially after a desperate meal of raw shellfish brings on a temporary bout of paralysis. Andy is saved by a friendly dog who leads him to a meeting with David, a huge, shy recluse who had faked his own death a decade before to live entirely off the land. Distrusting David's intentions at first, Andy flees into a system of caves, and finds a burial site that turns out to be thousands of years older than any human remains previously found in the Americas. Andy faces challenges with admirable courage, and his descriptions of woods, wildlife, and the spectacular cave formations he discovers have a ring of authenticity that makes his hardships and adventures as compelling as any of Gary Paulsen's. In the end, everyone wins: David reluctantly sacrifices his solitude to take Andy back to civilization, but then assumes a new role as caretaker of the archaeological site, which allows him to return to the island without entirely losing touch with the outside world. A rugged, satisfying episode for outdoorsy readers. (author's note) (Fiction. 10-13)