I must admit that I did not expect this book to end up with 5 stars when I decided to read it. So why did I choose it? Well, rewilding is trendy right now and I wanted to learn more about what it means for our world during this time of climate change. And yes, I learned how interdependent humanity and nature are. What surprised me, however, was seeing how powerful the healing powers of embracing nature can be and the reminder that parents are just sometimes a disappointment but it's okay to love them anyway. What a treasure this book turned out to be!

A very intense and touching story about Joy and her brother Ian, struggling through their parents' separation, working through body image and raising a (pet) bird with the help of their neighbour. I really enjoyed the themes in the book and would recommend extra consideration to suggest the book for kids/adult going through break ups/separation. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and learned a lot about nature, friendship and families.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Real life problems faced by real people. It's a story about how we can help restore the ecosystem but mostly about how one can face challenges in life. Not all problems can be fixed, but with help you can learn to deal with it and be encouraged. Reassurance of one's value to others.
I requested and received a temporary uncorrected proof copy from Red Chair Press | One Elm Books via NetGalley. Avail Aug 05, 2025 @goodreads @bookbub ***** #storygraph @librarythingofficial @kobo @waterstones #NetGalley #middlegrades #feelingoverwhelmed #RewildingRCP by #Lisa Gerlits @redchairpress #realfears #realistic #savingonebird #divorce #depression #bodyimage #selfesteem #supportivefriend #abusiveparent #siblings

Too much falls on the shoulders of eleven-year-old Joy. After her parents divorced, Dad is no longer around and repeatedly fails to follow through on their agreements to spend time together over a weekend or even show up on time to pick the children up after school. Joy's mom has hardly left her couch in these months. What’s worse, people around them start noticing that Joy and her seven-year-old brother Ian might not have enough food at home. Remembering what happened to a classmate who was taken away by Child Protective Services, Joy is sure nobody can know how much they need help and takes it upon herself to fix their life, which is showing more and more signs of neglect — effectively becoming a parent for Ian and the homemaker for their household. As if all the laundry, lawn-mowing, and feeding the family weren’t enough, Joy finds a baby bird in the front yard, apparently left behind by its bird parents and in danger of falling prey to the neighborhood "outside cat," Sheba. At a moment of despair, she has no one else to turn to other than that one neighbor whose plot, overgrown with weeds instead of a carefully trimmed lawn, has been an eyesore to everyone around.

I really loved this interweaving of themes. Neglect: at home, by physically or mentally absent parents; alleged neglect of the "overgrown" front yard by the neighbor who is actually restoring habitat for local species; and of course, the interpreted neglect of the baby bird by its parents. Not everything is what it seems from the beginning, and Joy has to revisit many of her beliefs about the world and herself on this journey. One of them, for instance: the idea that she cannot control her strength and inadvertently hurts everyone she cares about — like she hurt her baby brother a few years earlier. The understanding that letting anything apart from lawn grass grow in front of the house is neglect is also up for reconsideration, of course. But this story is beautifully about both of these things: what happens in Joy's family and what she discovers about nature — without one being just a metaphor for the other.

In case anyone is deciding whether to suggest this book to actual middle-graders, I totally recommend it — but I would like to warn that it should be offered with caution to anyone currently going through a parental divorce. It can be therapeutic if read in a supportive setting, perhaps, but I would discourage suggesting it to kids at such a moment in their lives in the hope that the book by itself will be therapeutic. Joy's despair at her life falling apart, and her sudden need to become the adult in the family and fix everything, is just too well written — to the point that it may feel too relatable and triggering.

And please contact responsible experts if you’ve found a wild bird fledgling seemingly abandoned by its parents (and the same in the case of a human child — but for the opposite reasons, perhaps).

Publication date: August 5, 2025.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC. The opinion above is entirely my own (informed by a professional interest in children's books rather than by my own age or by an experience of reading it with children in my care).

Rewilding by Lisa Gerlits is a tender, emotionally honest middle grade novel that surprised me with its depth.

Rewilding is one of those rare middle grade books that truly sees the emotional world of children for what it is: complicated, intuitive, and often far heavier than adults assume. I picked this up expecting a lighthearted story about nature and gardening. What I found instead was something far more powerful.

The story follows a young girl navigating the emotional fallout of her parents’ divorce. While her mother struggles with depression, she discovers a baby scrub jay and, along with her brother, tries to care for it. Their journey leads them to a woman with a wild garden and a sign that says, “Maybe YOU are the Weed”—a line that captures the book’s themes of growth, self-perception, and healing.

What stood out to me most was how unflinching the story is in portraying the emotional nuance of a child’s experience during family upheaval, including instances of direct parental gaslighting. It’s handled with care, but also with the kind of honesty that young readers deserve. While I did hope for more time spent on the joy of discovering the garden itself, the story that unfolds is honest, layered, and deeply affecting.

This is a beautiful, grounded novel that doesn't talk down to its audience. Highly recommended for thoughtful readers—young and old—who are ready to explore the messy, painful, and ultimately hopeful process of rewilding.

Special shout out to the bird facts as I have some fledgling scrub jays in my yard this year, so they were especially pertinent to me!

Thanks to NetGalley and Red Chair Press for the e-ARC.

Oh this was a book with the big feels! This was such a sweet and poignant read that my tween son and I read together. It dealt with so many different issues like learning who you are when your world has been turned upside down by parental depression, divorce, navigating new environments, & your own fears and insecurities being at the forefront of your mind. It dealt with so many sensitive topics in such gentle ways. A great read for kids aged 11-14 years old depending on maturity.

Sweet, precious story about some realistic kids in a all-too-common life situation, dealing with divorced parents, a mom with depression, navigating potential CPS issues, parentification, and food insecurity. The oldest child feels like she has to notice and balance everyone's emotions in the family ("my fulcrum duties"). She also feels like she has to hide the family neglect and drama so her and her little brother won't be taken away ("I need to make us look so good on the outside that no one will question what's going on inside.") But it's also about a kooky neighbor who insists that the city allows her yard to have 10 foot high weeds, and the healing power of nature. The main character/narrator is just such a genuine good kid. This truly made me cry at multiple points. A great read for middle-graders.

“I am quiet. Those last words strike a chord in me. Listening, watching, protecting. I think of Mom. I think of Ian. I think of spotting neglect.” - Joy, Rewilding

Rewilding by Lisa Gerlits is a realistic, sad but ultimately heartwarming story of Joy Holderman, an eleven year old girl, trying her best to take care of her younger brother Ian and her mother when their father leaves the family. She tries to parent her brother and run the household while her mother spends her days laying on the couch, all in an effort to keep Child Protective Services becoming involved in their situation.

As if Joy doesn’t have enough on her plate, Ian finds a baby bird in a wood pile and begs Joy to keep it. Initially reluctant, Joy soon heavily invests in doing the best to care for the bird - even asking for help from the scary and strange woman in her neighborhood. What unfolds from here is a story about what it means to be judged/not everything is as it seems, asking for help, community, and friendship.

The story contains heavy concepts of neglect, emotional abuse, and how people impact the environment. There is nothing graphic but rather implied or simply stated (like what is gaslighting.)

I believe this story is written sensitively and will appeal to middle school students who generally engage with stories contain characters their age who struggle with feeling confident and successful. Joy and Ian’s home life will, unfortunately, resonate with some students as well but this could also help those students understand that speaking up and asking for help can lead to positive changes.

This novel could be paired with Hoot by Carl Hiaasen, Blended by Sharon M. Draper and Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo.

A delightful book about Rewilding nature and the joys of finding unexpected help from neighbours. Only thing I didn’t like was what I felt was a brief, unexplained, and unnecessary mild reference to bulimia, especially when the children are facing hunger at times due to the break up of their parents’ marriage it made it feel irrelevant/inappropriate when at other parts of the book she was being so careful not to waste food when it was scarce. If it was an important part of the story, I felt it could have been spoken more about. As I’m taking a permaculture course and have a small garden myself, I felt it was an extremely poignant young adult book on the importance of taking care of our Mother Earth. A gentle and lovely story that was hard for me to put down. Also respectfully, sensitively, and kindly covers the topic of mental health issues, gaslighting, an emotionally/mentally abusive parent, trauma, and divorce.

oy Holderman and her brother Ian have had a hard time since their parents divorced. Their father isn't great about picking them up on time or following through with plans, and their mother is so depressed that she often doesn't make it out of bed in order to buy groceries or take care of the yard. The neighbors are starting to notice, and when Joy's best friend Char overhears Ian talking to the school counselor, Ms. Bertoli, Joy panicks about Children's Protective Services getting involved. When she is trying to do some lawn care herself, she finds an injured bird and is afraid a neighbor's cat might kill it, so she brings it inside and tries to take care of it. When she panics that she has perhaps done the wrong thing, she consults a neighbor whose yard is rewilded, which many of the other neighbors do not like. Mrs. MacRury, or Ezzie, as she likes to be called, is not friendly at first, but does help with the bird. Joy and Ian spend time in her yard, and it is a welcome break from their troubles at home. Joy does laundry, cooks, and makes a list of groceries for her mother. She sees a "final notice" bill for the electricity, which is soon cut off, and the mother still isn't motivated to action. Joy texts her mother's friend, Simone, telling her that they are not okay, especially after she sees legal papers indicating that her father is seeking custody because of the "mental instability" of the mother. This is especially important, since long held secrets about the father's interaction with the children come to light. Will Joy and her family be able to find a way forward?
Strengths: Stories about parental abuse and neglect tend to circulate well in my library; my daughter was a big fan. She explained that the books made her feel better about her own life, and I see this played out frequently in my library, usually in the winter, when readers crave this kind of comfort. The Holderman situation isn't dire, but it's getting there. Joy is able to take care of Ian, and does not want anyone, even her friend Char, to know their business. There are supportive adults, like Ms. Bertoli and Ezzie, and that's always a good, hopeful inclusion in this type of book. The problematic behavior of the father is foreshadowed nicely, and the inclusion of gaslighting is something that doesn't show up a lot in middle grade novels. Ezzie is an interesting character, and I love that she is rewilding her yard. I've been working on my own property since I read Burns' The Hive Detectives, and thankfully my neighbors have all been supportive. It's an interesting and important thing for readers to learn about!.
Weaknesses: The illustration style of the cover and interior pictures make this seem very young. It might be hard to get seventh and eighth grade readers to pick this up.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who are comforted by stories about children whose lives are worse than their own like Kalmar's Stealing Mt. Rushmore, LeZotte's Deer Run Home or Florence and Scrimger's The Other Side of Perfect.

This is is a charming story about Joy, a young girl who is struggling with her parents' break up and her mother's consequent depression. She is terrified that her school will summon child protective services if they find out what is really going on in her home.

All this puts additional pressure on Joy to act as a parent to her younger brother, with regard to whom she already has a guilty conscience for reasons we discover.

In the midst of all, Joy finds an unexpected respite after she discovers a baby bird, apparently abandoned, and establishes a relationship of sorts with a neighbour who is creating a wild garden on her property.

It is a touching story, with important lessons for young readers, but I did feel that the illustrations were inadequate and didn't really match the nature of the story telling. It gets 3.5 stars.

Great youth fiction sensitively discussing common growing up themes like body image. Thank you for opportunity to review.