The Wildes: The Vaquita (The Wildes, 2)

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Author(s)

Roland Smith

Publisher Name

Sleeping Bear Press

Genre(s)

Age Range

10+

Release Date

August 15, 2023

ISBN13

978-1534113077

ISBN10 or ASIN

Ring and Asia Wilde's wild life is anything but ordinary. Instead of attending school, they travel the world with their tutor and parents (scientists who work to protect endangered species). On their last adventure, they swung through the Amazon rainforest to save their mom from vile kidnappers--while defending the forest's population of golden lion tamarins. Now they're in Baja, Mexico--the Sea of Cortez to be exact--searching for the endangered vaquita and finding danger and conspiracy instead.

Editor review

1 review

Adventure in the Sea of Cortez!

October 04, 2023

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

Having saved their mother from kidnappers in The Amazon, Asia and Ring are back, helping their father plan a conference about the plight of vaquitas in Baja, Mexico. Their mother is still in Brazil reintroducing golden lion tamarinds to the wild, and their father is rushing about trying to get the conference details ready. The children are left with the bumbling Professor Bob, their tutor, but little schooling gets done. Asia assesses the situation and arranges to have the pool filled with water and cleans it. Ring, going into town for food, meets Flaco Mendoza, who knows their father, and is soon setting off to fish with him, leaving the keys in the vehicle he has taken, and his phone in his back pack, worrying Asia! He does learn a bit about what is stressing the vaquita population, which is crucial, since the animals don't do well in captivity. The Wildes conservation center in Texas is installing marine environments, but Dr. Jack is not necessarily planning on bringing animals back with him due to this fact. The children meet a wide variety of people planning on attending the conference, including workers from Sea World in San Diego, Scott Bendix, a suspicious but gregarious actor, Maxine Green, a journalist, and George Sweeney, from The Animal Protection Army, which is opposed to the Wildes' work. The children do have some allies, including the returning Tom Cotten, the father of Asia's friend Caleb, and Flaco's nephew Carlos. When Asia and Ring find a vaquita mother and her pup tangled in nets, they work with Flaco to save the animals. Will their knowledge of YouTube videos be enough to save the day?

Good Points

Like the Villalobos family in Melissa Cristina Márquez's Wild Survival books or Barn Whimbril in Joseph Monninger's Dragged From Under series, Asia and Ring are well-versed in conservation and trying their best to save the local animals wherever their somewhat inept parents have taken them. They manage to do this with very little adult supervision, which made me worry, but will delight younger readers. I appreciated that fact that Smith at least kept them alive!

I thought this would evolve into another mystery, with the introduction of so many interesting and possibly villainous characters, but this book was more centered around saving the vaquitas. It would have been helpful to have a short chapter at the back with information about this increasingly rare and endangered marine animal, since Smith is a fantastic nonfiction science writer who has also published They Are Here: How Invasive Species Are Spoiling Our Ecosystem.

Even in mostly landlocked Ohio, there are many children who are interested in marince ecology. Science teachers will be glad to pick up The Wildes along with Rorby's How to Speak Dolphin, Henderson's Young Captain Nemo, O'Hearn's Escape from Atlantis, Rivers's A Possibility of Whales, and McCarthy's B.E.S.T. World series.