HOME SCHOOL BOOK REVIEW
Book: Wild Timothy
Author: Gary L. Blackwood
Cover Illustrator: Robert Papp
Publisher: Puffin, republished 2002
ISBN-13: 978-0689313523 Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0689313527 Hardcover
ISBN-13: 978-0142302149 Paperback
ISBN-10: 0142302147 Paperback
Related website(s): http://www.scholastic.com (publisher)
Language level: 3
(1=nothing objectionable; 2=common euphemisms and/or childish slang terms; 3=some cursing and/or profanity; 4=a lot of cursing and/or profanity; 5=obscenity and/or vulgarity)
Recommended reading level: Ages 8 – 15
Rating: **** 4 stars
(5 stars=EXCELLENT; 4 stars=GOOD; 3 stars=FAIR; 2 stars=POOR; 1 star=VERY POOR; no stars=NOT RECOMMENDED)
Category: Adventure
Reviewed by Wayne S. Walker
Disclosure: Many publishers, literary agents, and/or authors provide free copies of their books in exchange for an honest review without requiring a positive opinion. Any books donated to Home School Book Review for review purposes are in turn donated to a library. No other compensation has been received for the reviews posted on Home School Book Review.
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Blackwood,Gary L. Wild Timothy (Published in 1987 by Puffin Books, a division of Penguin Putnum Inc., 375 Hudson St., New York City, NY 10014; republished in 2003 by Scholastic Inc., 557 Broadway, New York City, NY 10012). Thirteen-year-old Timothy lives with his parents in Elmira, NY, having moved there from Pennsylvania. His older brother Kevin is a rising freshman soccer star at Syracuse. Timothy is more interested in reading than in physical activity but reluctantly accompanies his enthusiastic father Jerry, who owns a construction company, on a camping trip at the Independence River near North Wilmurt in New York’s Adirondack Mountains. Then Timothy accidently becomes lost in the woods for several days and even weeks. Does anyone ever come looking for him? How can he survive on his own until someone finds him? And with a bear stalking him, will he even be alive by then?
In addition to some childish slang words and common euphemisms (e.g., crap, heck, darned, golly), the terms ”Oh God” and “Good Lord” are used as exclamations. There are also a couple of references to drinking beer. Otherwise, this is a good action-adventure book for the middle grade aged reader. Author Gary L. Blackwell, who also wrote The Shakespeare Stealer, does include the following note of warning: “Wild Timothy is a work of fiction and not meant to be a Wilderness Survival Manual. Timothy did some things right but, since he was working by trial and error, he also did a lot of things wrong….There are a number of good nonfiction books on the subject available through your library, bookstore, or county extension service.”
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