Reviews: (by author)

Gerstein, Mordicai. The Wild Boy. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1998. $16.00. ISBN 0-374-38431-2. www.mordicaigerstein.com

The Wild Boy is based on the true story of a wild boy found in France in 1800. A group of hunters finds the boy, later dubbed Victor, living naked and alone in the French mountain wilderness. He becomes the center of a great deal of academic excitement because of his wild behavior: he understands nothing of the world, does not speak, nor does he even understand that he is human. Since the Parisian scholars cannot make any progress with him, they lose interest in him. Young Dr. Itard then takes up his case, brings the boy home, treats him as a son, and names him Victor because he notes the boy likes the sound, "Oh." Although Victor never leans to speak, Dr. Itard, with the help of his housekeeper Mme. Guérin, does teach Victor many things, including how to love and be loved in return.

Gerstein saves this story from coming across as a historical, although interesting, recount by including penetrating details about Victor's habits that reveal the depth of character in this silent boy. The other characters do not know what to make of this wild boy. The newspapers call him "enfant sauvage" or savage child. Few people, other than Dr. Itard and his Mme. Guérin, recognize that Victor, although he behaves like an animal, is a human with all the emotions that come with that. Gerstein's representation emphasizes this fact. He notes that, even when Victor lives alone in the wilderness, he loves the wind, the snow, and the bright full moon. And every night when Dr. Itard puts him to bed, Victor places Dr. Itard's hand over his eyes and they sit together like that for as much as an hour. Through such details, Gerstein expresses Victor's uniqueness as a human and draws sympathy for Victor from the reader.

The illustrations, also done by Gerstein, serve to emphasize the opposite side of Victor: his wildness. The vivid pen and paint illustrations contain neither straight lines nor hard edges, but rather are full of wild brush strokes, haphazard pen marks, bleeding colors, splats and splotches.

This picture book was published simultaneously with Victor, a novel by the same author.

Highly recommended.
Elizabeth Klug, December 2003

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