Wendy Townsend

Lews and her dad love their simple life in a cottage in the woods. While her dad writes articles about nature, she and her cat Cash venture into the woods to explore. She can’t resist bringing her animal finds home with her, but her dad’s rule is that by sundown she has to put them back where she found them. What she really wants is to hold one of the crows that comes to snack in her compost pile, but she knows they’ll never let her get close enough.

Then Lews’s dad leaves for South America to work on an article for National Geographic, and she has to go stay with her aunt and uncle in the suburbs for six weeks. The worst part is that Aunt Kay is allergic to animals, so Cash can’t come. Although Aunt Kay and Uncle Jack are really nice and Lews has made a dear friend in their neighborhood, she still misses the woods, her cat, her crows, her dad. It’s almost like she’s been carried away from her native habitat and is waiting for someone to return her by sundown.

When everything seems like it’s falling apart at once and her six week stay looks like it could turn into all summer, Lews is faced with a question: can she adapt and survive until she’s able to go home?

If you enjoy stories about nature and animals, give this one a try.… (altro)

Wonderful debut novel from Townsend. Lizard Love tells the story of Grace, who hasn't any that she can see. She's passionate about all things herpetological and repelled by the changes her body is ringing. This book is a profound exploration of what it's like to be a girl who won't fit, who can't fit, and who has to learn how to embrace not fitting. Splendid. I identified so much with Grace, and remember doing so many of the things she did, including following a frog into a muddy pond all dressed up in girly finery. Her voice sounds achingly real, and her struggles are believable.

There are a few minor false notes, a bit of narrative stumbling but this is one I think I need to have on my shelves to reread again and again.… (altro)

Grace loves living on Grandma and Grandpa’s farm: she doesn’t have to wear shoes, no one comments on her rapidly changing body, and she can spend all day endlessly exploring the land and animals in and around the farm’s pond. When Grace’s mom moves Grace and herself to NYC, Grace is really a fish out of water. She hates the city and is embarrassed by the way boys and men look at her. Her only respite is her visit every day after school in the local reptile store, the “Fang & Claw”. There Grace meets Walter and his grandfather, people who share her fascination for the slimy amphibians and scaly reptiles Grace loves. A nice story about a girl who is out of sync with her peers and struggling to come to terms with herself. Recommended.… (altro)