Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms

Ms. Rundell's previous book, Rooftoppers, was a magical, gentle fantasy. This is also wonderful, but very different.I won't go into the plot as the summary does that well. If you want to know how a courageous, vulnerable, powerless, girl reacts when she's throw into an entirely new and foreign (literally) life with no preparation or choice, Will can show you how she tries to cope, does amazing feats of bravery, and finally has to accept the kindness of strangers and eventual hard wall of reality. She is an amazing girl and the plot is full of adventure and interesting characters. Mainly, it's the force of her bravery in the face of the unfairness of life that will fill the reader with admiration and have us rooting for her all the way. The evocation of her idyllic life on a farm in Botswana is beautifully portrayed as well, so we know exactly what she is losing. A great book to share with children of 10 and up, and for adult readers as well.

I bought this book to read for my summer reading list. At first, I was really bored because the first part was all about happy shiny fun times running around in Africa, and it didn't really have any exciting peaks, but I kept on reading. It had to have gotten the Boston Globe Horn Book Award for something! Finally, six chapters in, It started to get interesting with the story of Will( the main character)'s mom. Then it went on to an amazing tale of her getting sent to a sophisticated and completely different life in England that tortured her so much that she ran away, having to avoid everyone who was looking for her. She also had to go to the lengths of eating from garbage cans for food, and singing on the streets for money.Overall, this book was really worth reading because of all the adventure, but I don't think the author did a good job of writing an interesting beginning.Some of the main things I like about the book are1) The main character, Will, breaks the stereotypes about girls being weaker about boys2) The adventures of running away and how Will struggled to survive, but in the end, she always found a way.3) The uniqueness. I'm not sure if there was any other book like this or not, for I haven't even read a fifth of all the books in the world, but the whole " getting separated from your family and all that you know and going to school in a totally different place where you don't fit in" thing, kind of reminded me of the book, The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I thought it would be very similar to that story, but when I read further, I realized it was not.

This book was enjoyed by three generations. The first to read it was my nine year-old granddaughter. Well written story of a little girls life in Zimbabwe, beingup rooted, and sent to boarding school in England..We will be looking for more books by this author.

Love this book and I am 39. My daughters favorite book so I read it. Great!

It came punctually and was the lovely book I ordered.

This is one of my absolute favorite books of all time. I love how Katherine Rundell writes.

My favorite of Rundell's books. A book for wild, fierce, independent girls.

This is my third book by Katherine Rundell, and it just goes to prove that I absolutely adore her writing. Every book that I've read by her is just ... enchanting. I particularly loved the main character in this book - Wilhelmina Silver, commonly known as Will and affectionately known as Wildcat. She was fierce, vulnerable, lovable, loyal, strong, and beautiful.The story in and of itself was interesting - a girl raised in the African bush sent to a British boarding school after losing both her mother and father - and the execution wasn't lacking ... but, BUT. I wanted so much more than I was given; Will is sent to the boarding school and, predictably, all hell breaks loose in her world, but so many threads are left completely unresolved at the end. I wouldn't say that I necessarily wanted less of anything to be given more of an ending, but I will say that by the end I would have gladly read 100 more pages of this book if it could have meant more closure to Will's story.If you've never read Katherine Rundell before, I absolutely recommend starting with Rooftoppers, which is one of my absolute favorite MG novels, or Wolf Wilder - both are strong and beautiful novels from Rundell. Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms isn't bad, per se, but in the shadow of Rooftoppers, it left much to be desired.

This is a wonderful book, beautifully and sensitively written. I strongly recommend it. However UK readers may need to be aware that this is a US publication and is the SAME book as was published here as a paperback in 2011 under the title 'The Girl Savage'. If you haven't read it yet though and/or want a beautiful hardback copy then most certainly buy.

I was really upset to find that I have already bought this book but it was named The Girl Savage. Amazon recommends buying three of Katherine Runndall's books- Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms, The Girl Savage and Rooftoppers which is ridiculous as two of these books are the same story. Be careful when buying that you also do not make the same mistake.

Love reading all Katherine Rundells books, the wildness, the freedom, full of beautiful words, adventure, strength, emotion, childhood - to be young.

Two chapters in and the book is really good so far, I'm reading it with my 11 year-old daughter and we're both enjoying it. I'm disappointed with the quality of the materials it is made with though, the cover is flimsy and the pages are thin, rough and not white. We've just started reading it and it looks a bit dog-eared already.

Just a rename of a previous book