The Last Wild

Twelve-year-old Kester Jaynes lives in a bleak future where a red-eye disease has wiped out nearly all animals and children like him are kept in a troubled-home institution. He cannot speak to humans, and no one will tell him why he was taken from his family.

Everything changes when pigeons and a bossy cockroach start speaking to him and help him escape. Kester learns he can communicate with animals, and that the surviving creatures need his help to survive the disease and the humans who hunt them.

With a stag, a wolf cub, a mouse, Polly, and other animal companions, Kester travels through a dangerous ruined world toward the last wild place. Along the way he faces threats, uncovers truths about his situation, and is drawn into a larger mission to save what remains of the animals.