At its heart, Rewilding is a tender, poignant middle grade novel about twelve-year-old Joy, who finds herself juggling way more than any kid should. While taking care of her younger brother Ian and hiding their struggling home life from nosy adults, Joy stumbles into something unexpectedly healing: nature. Between dodging Child Protective Services and trying to keep her family from falling apart, she begins to rewild a neglected yard and, in the process, slowly begins to rewild herself.

Joy’s narration is painfully real, funny in all the right ways, and completely heartbreaking when it needs to be. Right from chapter one, when she eavesdrops on a conversation between the school counselor and her brother, we’re dropped into a world where Joy is already carrying the emotional weight of an adult. “Big clumsy Joy strikes again,” she says after barging into Bertie’s office, and that moment hits like a brick. She’s trying so hard to hold things together that you want to jump into the story and tell her she doesn’t have to. But that’s the thing, she does have to. No one else will.

The themes Gerlits weaves through the story of neglect, gaslighting, mental illness, and body image are handled with honesty and subtlety, but they never weigh the book down. Joy’s relationship with her own body, for instance, is explored quietly and compassionately. She’s constantly aware of her size, of how her clothes don’t fit right anymore, of how people react to her strength. And then comes the moment when Joy discovers a baby bird in the woodpile and makes the quiet but profound decision to care for it. The scene is deeply moving. When she gently says, “You trust me,” to the fragile creature in her hands, it becomes a powerful symbol of her own longing to be trusted, needed, and capable. For a brief instant, everything else in the story seems to pause around that simple, tender exchange.

But what I loved most was the metaphor of rewilding. Not just the literal ecosystem restoration Joy does in the ARK yard, but the way she’s unknowingly restoring herself. Her home life is rough. Her mom is barely functioning, her dad is unreliable, and her little brother is too young to understand the danger they’re in. Yet Joy never gives up. She mows the lawn, feeds her brother, protects her mom’s dignity, and tries (with mixed results) to raise a bird. The passage in which Joy resolves to clean up the yard to prevent others from suspecting neglect is among the most emotionally wrenching in the novel. It reveals a fierce, protective love intertwined with a desperate desire to maintain control over an unraveling situation. The moment is rendered with striking authenticity and emotional depth.

Rewilding isn’t just a story for kids. It’s for anyone who’s ever tried to make the best of a messy situation. It’s for anyone who’s ever felt unseen or overwhelmed or not strong enough, only to discover they are. I’d recommend this book to middle grade readers who like realistic stories with heart, but also to adults who remember what it was like to be young and scared and brave all at once. This book doesn’t shy away from hard truths, but it also offers hope in the shape of a baby bird, a patch of wildflowers, and a girl who learns she really does know her own strength.

Pages: 288 | ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0DZCJYQHW