THE SECRET WILD, Alex Evelyn, 2022, WALKER BOOKS.
Paperback, ISBN 978 1 4063 9939 4
For me the main character in any book I read has to be likeable or I find it impossible to push past the first couple of chapters.

The main character in THE SECRET WILD, Fern fits the bill.
She is a bit clumsy and doesn’t think or plan ahead, but her love of plants and her curiousness about them is endearing despite her inability to do as her father says which can lead her into danger.
Ten year old Fern has lived her whole life in the rainforest with her botanist parents and loves to climb trees and talk to them. However after an incident that leaves her parents very worried about Fern, she has to leave them and the rainforest to move to London to live with her eccentric writer uncle.
Fern finds London at first to be strange and unfriendly and so very different to her life in the rainforest. However making an unusual friend helps her feel a little less uncomfortable and allows her time to try to plan her escape back to her parents.
I won’t share anything more about this story as it is full of adventure, love and friendship as well as a couple of bad characters.
It is however a really good read.
The images of plants slowly encroaching growing everywhere is a nice foreshadowing touch.
Recommended
Sharon Greenaway
20th January 2023.