children's middlegrade fantasy with sci-fi elements. almost 13-year-old boy discovers he can talk to animals and then is tasked with saving them and the last wild place with the help of his scientist dad and by uncovering the truth about the disease that has brought about the collapse of society and those who have since taken power. I found myself skipping the descriptive bits to get to the dialogue parts (either it is a little slow, or I am just impatient right now). ( )

AMAZING! Loved every minute. Fast-paced adventure with a heart. ( )

An enjoyable eco-adventure set in a future England with strong human and animal characters: Kester Jaynes, Polly, the "General" cockroach, pigeons, the stag, a wolf-cub, a harvest mouse and more. Kester can speak to animals, but not people. Polly is not afraid to speak for all. Together, they become ambassadors for the rights of animals and humans, braving dangers and opening the way to truth. A map helps readers follow the characters' travels. I look forward to reading the sequel. ( )

Ésta es la historia de un niño llamado Kester. Es un niño muy especial, aunque él aún lo ignora. Ahora mismo, lo único que sabe es esto:

1. En su habitación hay una bandada de palomas alborotadas.
2. Le están hablando.
3. Su vida nunca volverá a ser como antes...

I dunno. For the target audience, it's great. For one who has seen it all before, done better, not so much. Too much suspension of belief, and not all that carefully written.

I'm glad it was in first person from the child's pov, because then, anything that it seemed that the author hadn't thought through, I could just blame on the character not actually understanding all the details, causes, consequences. Also, I found it too much like [b:Gregor the Overlander|262430|Gregor the Overlander (Underland Chronicles, #1)|Suzanne Collins|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387742259s/262430.jpg|524491], which was another MG adventure that I only kinda liked.

Even the touching & heart-wrenching scenes didn't resonate with me. It's as if the author made a list of all the elements that have been successful in recent MG fiction, added some dystopia because that's what the big brothers & sisters are reading, and put everything he could make fit into the story.

Also, if it's meant to be a cautionary fable about our need to treat nature/ the environment better, it fails. Maybe there's more in the next book(s), but for now this is too unreal to be plausible, and also is basically the fault of one greedy mogul. Young readers aren't going to see, from this book, that their actions can make a difference, for good or for bad, in the future of our biosphere.

Impulse grab at the library - should have resisted temptation. ( )