When I saw the cover of The Wildest Thing by Emily Winfield Martin I figured it was going to be a fun story. Nothing “wow” but not going to be dull either. And it is just that. We have a child letting their imagination run wild and bring out the wild within them. It is about play and individuality. It has some sweet illustrations that are not “too much” (not a lot of details, not a lot of color, not a lot of text to interrupt it).
But that is it, for me. I read it via an online reader (due in a few months in January of 2026), but probably will not find a finished copy. I am not saying it is a bad book, in fact far from that. I am saying that it was not a book for me. It is a book that you need the right audience for. It is a good book that needs three different ratings: the first is the overall rating of the individual qualifiers (illustrations, story and overall presentation of how the two mix), the second one is for how it made me feel
(happy, sad, inbetween, fuzzy, confused, disappointed) and then what I think other readers and/or listeners will think about it. Therefore between the first two qualifiers, I felt this book is 3.5 or it is a solid middle ground book.
That is not to say you won’t think FIVE ALL AROUND! In fact you might even say it is a big ol’ TEN! So, my third rating is a four as I do think people will feel this is a five. It has both a modern and old school feel to things. Things are jello. Things are not a hard solid effect, but wiggles. There is wiggle room to like, dislike, read again. It has layers and it is something that everyone takes away something different and yet, can have shared experiences.