Juniper Berry knows how to handle bobcats, bears, and mountain lions, but can she survive the toughest predator of all—middle school?

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 challenges, belonging and finding your identity, compassion for others, and learning that our differences can sometimes be our strengths.

Juniper Berry lives deep in the woods in a makeshift house with her parents and her brother and sister. They live totally off the grid, growing and catching their food. Washing their clothes by hand and using herbal medication when sick, that is until her little brother gets ill and needs an operation.

After his operation Juniper’s brother is still very sick and needs to stay in the hospital for a while so the family moves in with her uncle and his daughters, people she had never heard of let alone met. Staying with relatives, living in a flat, and having to attend the local school are all new to Juniper and she is finding it hard to fit in. No one seems to like her, including her cousins.

But as the medical bills start to pile up Juniper is shown how she could make some money by posting videos online, but are people ready to take in Juniper’s wisdom or will she be a laughing stick?

The Wild Journey of Juniper Berry is a fabulous middle-grade novel. Juniper is an amazing character who views the world very differently from most other children as she has never seen a city, a TV, electrical items, cars, etc. Her life seemed so peaceful and fun, apart from laundry day, and it was wonderful to see how people could live without modern amenities.

I adored Juniper’s enthusiasm for everything and how she was so confident and didn’t care what others thought of her. Her little speeches to herself will resonate with readers and hopefully have them becoming more confident too.

There are a lot of life lessons within the pages alongside a truly spectacular story. The plot was full of adventure, humour, and fun, and surrounded by love which came across strongly. This is definitely a book all middle graders should be reading.

Chad Morris grew up wanting to become a professional basketball player or a rock star. Neither of those plans quite panned out, so he wrote and performed sketch comedy while going to college. Now he’s a teacher and a writer.

Shelly Brown loves to write books for children. In her spare time, she enjoys the theater and traveling. In addition to her five children, she has three chickens and sixty-four Pez dispensers.