Ren leaves the fireflies, nature and magical creatures of the forest in exchange for the noise, brick and cement of city life, and oh how he misses his wild life in el Yunque. One day he meets friendly Ava who lives upstairs . She shows Ren that the city has its own kind of vibrant charm and adventures around every corner but will he be able to see its magic? A heartwarming tale that shows that sometimes a good friend is all you need to make a new place feel like home.
A New Kind of Wild was written and illustrated by Zara González Hoang and published by Dial Books for Young Readers.
Zara González Hoang on the inspiration behind the story — “A NEW KIND OF WILD was inspired by my dad, who was born in the mountains of Puerto Rico, a place that in his stories was so magical, and moved, when he was fairly young to New York City, a place that I have always found magical. New York and Puerto Rico are so different and I wanted to write about that – about what it is to be taken from a place so familiar, the only place you had ever known, and be dropped some place new and completely different – where you just don't see how anything can be the same. I am so fascinated by the concept of "home" and what it is, how we find it, how we make it and the pieces we bring with us when we move, it's a theme that comes up in a lot of the stories I write.”
