• Age: 9 to 12
• Grade: 4 to 7
• Reading age: 9 to 12

What if the new key to making our lives safer (and even healthier) is to allow the wilderness back into our cities?

Going wild. We don't see it as a good thing. And why would we? For most of our time on earth, humanity has been running from lions and other wilderness dangers. We've worked hard to make our local landscapes as safe and convenient as possible. Sometimes that's meant paving over areas that might burst into weeds. Other times, we've dammed rivers for electricity or irrigation. But now pollution, climate change and disruptions to the water cycle are affecting the world in ways we never anticipated.

Michelle is the author of several books for children, and she enjoys telling the stories of kids who seize life's opportunities. When growing up in Port Moody, British Columbia, her favourite spot was the library. She loved cracking open the cover of a novel, taking a deep breath, and jumping into another life.

At university, Michelle studied literature, and between courses, she helped dig a water pipeline in the Dominican Republic and flipped burgers for a summer at a McDonald's in Germany. After graduating, she cycled 6000 kilometres across Canada, became a travel writer, taught creative writing in the Arctic, and worked as a simulated patient for medical students to practice on. She also married the pen pal that she'd been writing to since she was fourteen years old, and together they traveled around his home country of Argentina.

Michelle began writing for kids because she's always loved reading children's books. These days, when she's not writing or going on adventures, she enjoys reading, swimming, baking, hiking, and pedaling her bicycle around Victoria, British Columbia, where she lives with her husband and daughter. For more information about Michelle and her books, please visit her website at www.michellemulder.com.

Michelle Mulder's profile page

• Long-listed, The Nature Generation Green Earth Book Award
• Commended, CCBC Best Books for Kids & Teens, starred selection

&quotYoung readers will have no trouble finding references they can relate to throughout this book as they examine their own urban lifestyles for the vital connections with nature that are emphasized here…Going Wild could be well used to stimulate discussion on the topic. Highly Recommended.&quot

CM Magazine

"Provides useful, informative text accompanied by clear and appealing photographs…Conversational writing makes the information provided accessible to the target audience and relevant to those wanting to make the world a better place."

Sal's Fiction Addiction blog

&quotThis book is highly recommended for both public and school libraries. The book offers great ideas for classroom field trips and nature projects. It offers ideas for individual projects as well. It is no small feat to combine descriptions of widespread environmental degradation with examples of hope and positive change but this is indeed what Michelle Mulder has done in Going Wild.&quot

Resource Links

"[Readers] will certainly get her message: we all need a stronger connection to the natural world. [Mulder] encourages young people to get outside and get their hands dirty (it's healthful!) and to get involved in citizen-science efforts. Her text is made more accessible with clear subheadings, italicized words (defined in a glossary), and plentiful photographs from around the world which include a variety of ages and races. Sidebars offer interesting 'Wild Facts' and 'Making Tracks,' examples from her own life. Recommended for settings where others in the series have been useful."

Kirkus Reviews

&quotPerfect for inspiring readers to explore the natural world while also encouraging discussion about the environmental changes caused by humans.&quot

School Library Journal

"Mulder approaches her topic with enthusiasm…Readers intrigued by the idea of greener cities will find plenty of encouragement here, along with examples from around the world. One or two attractive color photos appear on every page. A short, persuasive introduction to the rewilding movement."

Booklist