Wild Blues: 05/17/19

Wild Blues by Beth Kephart is a middle grade novel set in Adirondacks during the escape of two convicts from a nearby prison. It's the same inspiration as Breakout by Kate Messner, but with a very different execution.

Thirteen year old Lizzie has been living with her Uncle Davy while her mother gets her life together. She has a year-rounder friend and together they've been learning the forest backwards and forwards.

Lizzie's life in the Adirondacks is framed around a survival book, Camping and Woodcraft by Horace Kephart (an ancestor of Beth Kephart). Lizzie's actions are inspired by, defined by, favorite quotes from Horace Kephart.

Of all the books I read last year, Wild Blues is one of the most poetic. The poetry is built from H. Kephart's quotes and Lizzie's interpretations of them. Her witness statement is also broken up into snippets and phrases.

But all of this is told through a victim's statement. Lizzie, we know from the very beginning, is a survivor. As her account of what happened unfolds, we learn just how she managed to survive and how she managed to rescue her uncle and her best friend.

All of this survival and rescue fits into the road narrative spectrum. Lizzie, cut off from friends and family because of the convicts, is for most of this novel, an orphan traveler (FF). Her destination is wherever her uncle and friend are being kept by the convicts. It's somewhere in the wilderness, or for the spectrum, the wildlands (99). Her route is fraught with danger — from the landscape itself, to the convicts. As her route is also circuitous, it counts as a maze, albeit a nature made one (CC). Put all together, it's an orphan going through a maze of the wildlands to rescue kith and kin.

Five stars

Comments (2)

Comment #1: Sunday, May 19, 2019 at 23:31:42

Martha Eskuchen

This book has my interest. Thanks for sharing.

Comment #2: Monday, May 27, 2019 at 21:40:00

Pussreboots

It was one of my favorite books from last year. I hope you get a chance to read it.