Age Group: 9 - 12 Years, 12+ Years

Description:

In a bleak future world ravaged by a deadly virus, all the animals are gone. Almost. Twelve-year-old Kester Jaynes is locked away in Spectrum Hall, a grim home for troubled children, where he hasn't spoken a single word in six long years. The doctors say there's something wrong with him — but Kester knows the truth. He can hear the small creatures around him: the cockroaches, the spiders, the rats. They speak right back to him. So when a flock of talking pigeons and a bossy military cockroach burst dramatically into his bedroom one night and break him out, Kester is half-convinced he's finally lost his mind for good. But the animals have a message: deep in a hidden wild place, the very last surviving creatures in the land are waiting — and they desperately need his help. Joined by a wise old stag, an over-enthusiastic wolf-cub, a spoilt show-cat, a dancing harvest mouse and a stubborn girl named Polly, Kester sets out on a perilous, laugh-out-loud, heart-wrenching journey to find a cure before time runs out. The animals saved Kester Jaynes — now can Kester save the animals? An imaginative, Carnegie-shortlisted opener to Piers Torday's beloved Last Wild trilogy, perfect for adventure-loving readers aged eight and up.