Wild Boy by Rob Lloyd Jones is one of the Branford Boase short list books on display just now. It was read and reviewed by one of our S2 students, who told me why she had enjoyed it.

At the start of this book Wild Boy is in the workhouse and he is treated like a monster – people call him names and he acts wild because that is what they expect. He is taken up by a freak show who travel around London and he befriends Sir Oswald, who looks after him and treats him like a person. Everyone else still calls him names, but he starts to have friends like Sir Oswald and Clarissa, one of the acrobats.

Later on in the book Wild Boy sees a murder, and ends up with blood on his hands because he tried to help. Everyone thinks he did the murder and he is locked up in a cage, but he escapes with the help of Clarissa, and they set out to prove his innocence.

I liked this book because it was very exciting and I always wanted to know what happened next. There will be a sequel soon, called Wild Boy and the Black Terror.