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Title details for The Wanderers by Kate Ormand - Available

The Wanderers

by Kate Ormand
ebook
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A Unique Twist on Shape-Shifters with Fast-Paced Action, Thrilling Adventure, Mystery, and a Bit of Romance
Flo lives an eccentric life—she travels with a popular circus in which the main acts star orphaned children with secret shape-shifting abilities. Once Flo turns sixteen, she must perform, but she's not ready. While practicing jumping a flaming hurdle in a clearing beside the circus, she spots a dark figure in the trees and fears he saw her shift. The news sends the circus into a panic.
In Flo's world, shifters are unknown to humans with the exception of a secret organization—the EOS, referred to as “hunters." Hunters capture and kill. They send some shifters to labs for observation and testing—testing they don't often survive—and deem others useless, a danger to society, and eliminate them. To avoid discovery, shifters travel in packs, constantly moving and keeping themselves hidden. Up until now, the circus was the perfect disguise.
Believing she has brought attention to the group, Flo feels dread and anxiety, causing her to make a mistake in front of the audience during her performance—a mistake that triggers a violent attack from the hunters.
Flo manages to flee the torched circus grounds with Jett, the bear shifter who loves her; the annoying elephant triplets; and a bratty tiger named Pru. Together they begin a new journey, alone in a world they don't understand and don't know how to navigate. On the run, they unravel secrets and lies that surround the circus and their lives—secrets and lies that all point to the unthinkable: Have they been betrayed by the people they trusted most?
Sky Pony Press, with our Good Books, Racehorse and Arcade imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of books for young readers—picture books for small children, chapter books, books for middle grade readers, and novels for young adults. Our list includes bestsellers for children who love to play Minecraft; stories told with LEGO bricks; books that teach lessons about tolerance, patience, and the environment, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 1, 2015

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781634509145
      • File size: 1376 KB

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781634509145
      • File size: 1164 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      July 15, 2015
      Flo and her friends are but poor, lost circus performers-who shape-shift into animals and try to evade governmental capture. Newly turned 16, orphaned shifter Flo is dreading her first circus performance. Alas for her, it's not optional; all of the shifter children who live with the circus must perform regularly as soon as they reach that age. Flo must take a turn like all the others, so after a false start, she takes the stage-not as a girl but as a magnificent mare. Like her boyfriend, Jett the bear, or her nemesis, Pru the tiger, Flo becomes an animal at will. In a modern world of cars and DVD players, the circus shifters live almost medievally, bound under the unkind leadership of the elders, three middle-aged lion shifters. Flo knows that if she leaves, she'll be vulnerable to hunters, government-funded paramilitary forces that are the modern legacy of sworn enemies who have been murdering shifters since time immemorial. So she tolerates the cruelty of her peers, learns to jump through a flaming hoop, and almost has hope for the future when disaster strikes. In a spare first-person, present-tense narration, Flo takes readers through a swoony romance with a massive body count. Despite the potential whimsy of a circus adventure narrated by a shape-shifting mare, this more closely resembles a brutal, angst-drenched dystopia a la Veronica Roth's Divergent (2011) than anything else. (Fantasy. 13-15)

      COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • School Library Journal

      October 1, 2015

      Gr 6 Up-As long as she can remember, 16-year old shape-shifter Flo has lived a life on the run, moving with the circus and hiding her ability to become a horse from humans and from the "hunters." The circus has seemed a safe, if not highly profitable, place for her and the other orphans in the pack, under the guidance and protection of a trio of middle-age lion-shifters. But now, since she has come of age, it is time for Flo to perform with the adults. Even with the support of Jett, a handsome young bear-shifter who loves her, and even after strenuous practice, Flo is nervous about jumping flaming hurdles. She is even more ill at ease after she becomes aware of the black-clothed men watching her and the other circus performers. When this anxiety causes her to make one small mistake, Flo's world explodes. The circus is destroyed, and she finds herself both prey and hunter. Along with Jett and a few survivors, she joins a small pack of itinerant shifters, running to avoid capture by the hunters, while struggling to unravel the almost unbelievable conspiracy that brought her and others to the circus in the first place. Ormand introduces readers to a large cast of characters, some more developed than others, and she makes their unusual circumstances plausible and exciting. This often-brutal tale unfolds through Flo's narration, allowing readers to experience her thoughts, fears, and developing attachment to Jett. VERDICT The preternatural circus of shifters, budding young romance, and action-packed struggle against evil will appeal to readers of paranormal fiction.-MaryAnn Karre, West Middle School, Binghamton, NY

      Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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