THE WILD JOURNEY OF JUNIPER BERRY, by Chad Morris and Shelly Brown, Shadow Mountain, Aug. 15, 2023, Hardcover, $18.99 (ages 8-12)
An off-the-grid family is forced to move into the city when illness strikes in The Wild Journey of Juniper Berry, by Chad Morris and Shelly Brown.
Eleven-year-old Juniper Berry lives with her family deep in the wild woods. Living off the grid is pretty exciting, but her happy life in the wild ends abruptly when her younger brother gets sick, and they move to the city to be closer to the hospital. Juniper and her older sister end up living with cousins they hardly know and attending public school for the first time, which is harder to navigate than the wild woods ever were. Juniper feels like a wolf cub separated from her pack.
As the hospital bills for her brother start piling up, Juniper knows they’ll need to be paid before the family can go back to the woods, so she decides to make enough money to help out. With her cousin Alayna’s support, Juniper starts posting videos filled with her wisdom from the woods, hoping to get a following. But what if it doesn’t work? What if the bills never get paid? Not going home to the wild is Juniper’s worst nightmare. While she’s stuck in the city, she might as well make the most of it, like sticking up for Alayna, who’s being bullied by her supposed friends, for starters.
The Wild Journey of Juniper Berry is a story about perseverance when faced with difficult and unfamiliar challenge, belonging and finding your identity, compassion for others, and learning that our differences can sometimes be our strengths. —Synopsis provided by Shadow Mountain
You might know Chad Morris and Shelly Brown from their previous collaborations — Mustaches for Maddie, Squint, Willa and the Whale and Virtually Me. All are strong middle grade novels. I enjoyed them all. But The Wild Journey of Juniper Berry is my favorite.
Juniper is a force to be reckoned with. She’s clever, resourceful, athletic and speaks her own mind. Having been raised away from society, she doesn’t understand social cues, why people wear the clothes they wear or the lack of interest in how things work. Juniper can’t figure out why there’s a pecking order for people and why people adhere to it.
This sets up situations that help readers eliminate the noise surrounding social situations. It’s pretty marvelous, and it comes across naturally without feeling like a lesson.
Morris and Brown have a comfortable writing style that’s easy to slip into, and they hit on emotional topics with an authenticity that can often be lost in a book like this.
The Wild Journey of Juniper Berry is a quick-moving read with short chapters and engaging characters. This would make a great classroom read-aloud but it’s also perfectly lovely reading it on your own.
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