Craig Aitchison’s second book, Wild Light: Scotland’s Mountain Landscapes, is one of the finest books of Scottish landscape photography I’ve seen in recent years. There are days when your heart is so filled with this world’s beauty, it feels like holding too much of something in your hand. Days that taste like wild honey. Delaney + Science – I will always laud a STEM loving character, and there was some cool science mentioned. With profound, evocative prose and lyrical insights into the world surrounding a struggling main character, Zentner’s powerful, emotional novel is one you won’t soon forget.” — Buzzfeed I hope you enjoy this journey through 24 hours of my collected memories of the nature that surrounds me.”

I enjoyed this tale of a family spending six months on an island as caretakers of a lighthouse and weather station. Sixteen year old Stephanie is less than happy to be there, especially during her last year at school with final exams looming and no phone reception to talk to her friends. Her mother thinks it will help them all get over the death of Stephanie's twin brother and is keen to spend time on the island where her own parents were once lighthouse keepers. When she makes a remarkable scientific discovery locally with Cash’s help, it gets Delaney a full ride to a prestigious Connecticut boarding school, where she’ll finally be challenged academically. She convinces them to award the same opportunity to Cash, since she can’t imagine undertaking this adventure without him.

I hope you enjoy this journey through 24 hours of my collected memories of the nature that surrounds me." It perfectly encapsulates what it feels like to be the outsider. What it feels like to be lost. To love. To grieve. To heal. Come inside an enchanting world where you’ll discover the secret life of the Zoo at night! You’ll be greeted by a Wizard and presented with a choice of three pathways to explore first. From there, you’ll be transported to lands of magic and wonder, with fairies mythical creatures, multi-coloured animals and even a candyland, all lit up as beautiful silk lanterns. This is by far the most stunningly beautiful book I have worked on and it has nothing to do with my design. Such a privilege to work with such amazing photography. - Jerry Dorris Speaking of, the protagonist, an east Tennessee kid named Cash (yes, yes -- after Johnny) who doesn't know he's in love with his best friend, the scientifically brilliant Delaney, becomes a poet himself along the long and winding way. Props to Zentner for giving air-starved poetry some life, then! And for letting the twosome go to a private school in Connecticut without any Connecticut stereotypes. (Zentner's only mess-up is referring to a "New England accent," as if such a single thing exists.)

Life often won’t freely give you moments of joy. Sometimes you have to wrench them away and cup them in your hands, to protect them from the wind and rain. Art is a pair of cupped hands. Poetry is a pair of cupped hands. It turned out that a boarding school book was how this story wanted to be told. There’s a particular sort of magnetism that the boarding school story has for a particular sort of person. I’m one of these people. As a kid I dreamed of a place where my love of learning was a social asset, rather than a liability. I imagined a refuge, away from parents and bullies, where I could go to be the person I really wanted to be. Naturally, I’ve always been drawn to boarding school stories for this reason. When I started writing books, I promised myself I’d write one someday. This time the answer was: standing in rivers, floating on rivers, reading poems, writing poems, audacious journeys with friends, having friends smarter than you, learning about the wonders of the world from friends smarter than you, that one teacher you never forget, talking on front porches, sitting silent on front porches, watching the sun set, and falling in love.

Comments on the book

Jeff Zentner's latest YA novel is a powerful, poignant story about family, friendship, heritage, love, and finding yourself.

When you grow up with ugliness and corruption, you surrender to beauty whenever and wherever you find it. You let it save you, if only for the time it take for a snowflake to melt on your tongue or for the sun to sink below the horizon to a wildfire of clouds. No matter what else might be troubling your mind." Wild Light has received acclaim from many different places. In April of 2015, at a ceremony in Austin, Texas, Wild Light received the gold prize Benjamin Franklin Award for best book in the Nature and Environment category and a silver prize in the Coffee Table Book category. There were 1,400 books in competition this year. These awards were given by the Independent Book Publishers Association, a national organization representing independent publishers across the United States. Wild Light was also a finalist at the Colorado Book Awards. Each book comes with a gold foil label on the front cover showing the Benjamin Franklin Gold Award. Call me heartless, I admit- I am. But how can I deny my heart what it desires? I wanted to love this book. I wanted to love it so bad that thinking about it hurts right now. But alas! I didn't. I couldn't. This was just excellent! Zentner is one of my absolute favorite YA authors, and this book was another reminder why.Wild Lights is a date and time specific event. However, Dublin Zoo offers Wild Lights customers the option to change the date of their booking up to 7 days before their original date of visit. If you wish to change your booking date there are two options: I loved The Serpent King, a beautiful story! An easy five star read. And this? I’d like to give it a million stars. It’s a gem! It could easily be a literary masterpiece! Jeff Zentner juggles with words and puts them together in a hypnotizing way. It left me longing and breathless and smiling and silent and crying and so much more. How can someone make me feel so many emotions just by putting words together? Evocative and moving, highlighting Zentner’s impressive skill with both poetry and prose.”— Publishers Weekly,starred review But life is busy, and I am guilty as anyone of being too preoccupied by daily life to just stop and look. This book is a collection of illustrations from those moments when I have stopped and looked; when a particular encounter with nature has been highlighted by the time of day or the time of night, becoming a strong image long remembered and one that I wish to illustrate. Not only does Mundy have a way with words but she also creates characters that are very real and full of complexities. Be it main protagonist or minor supporting character, I could easily relate to them or know of someone just like them.