Books With Bean ~ The Wild Book

Title: The Wild Book

Author: Juan Villoro

Published: 2008 (original edition in Spanish), 

November, 4th 2017 (English edition)

Genre: Children's 

Summary: Juan's life is turned upside-down when he learns his father is leaving to work in Paris and his parents are separating. Suddenly a summer break from school has gone from looking like fun days with his friends to living with his strange uncle Tito in his uncle’s strange house full of books. Upon arriving Juan learns that his summer is about to be anything but boring. He is a special sort of reader and His uncle’s books have personalities of their own. 

Juan and his new friend Catalina, who helps at her family’s pharmacy across the street, soon begin to share the books from uncle Tito’s house. Reading the adventures of the Heart Shaped River they learn more about how the books work to find just the right readers for themselves. Soon they are on the hunt for the most elusive book of them all The Wild Book which has never been read and only held a few times. 

What I liked about it: This book was an amazing and beautiful book! I definitely recommend it to anyone who loves books and loves to read and go on adventures (real or in print). Juan, Catalina, Uncle Tito and all the other characters were fun and each was interesting in their own way. The way the book talks about books and their readers really resonated with me. The story was unique and I loved it a lot. It was also really interesting because it was not originally written in English and yet in the translation from Spanish there was never a time where it sounded weird or choppy. 

Language: None

Romance: As soon as Juan meets Catalina he falls in love with her. However the characters are young (13ish) and it never gets inappropriate. Juan kisses her on the cheek once and Catalina does so back a little later. It does say at the end of the book that several years later they got married but it is obvious that it is not immediate. 

Violence: None

Magic: The books move on their own. They have a way of appearing before those that they think would like to read them. It is never quite explained how this all works however. 

Recommended Age: Juan is 13 and I think that 12-13 would be a good age to read this book for the first time. However if you are older I still think you would like it a lot.