Don't Feed The Boy

ISBN: 978-1596437555

Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan

"Readers won't soon forget Whit and Stella's adventures."
—Publisher's Weekly

"This is solid storytelling."
- School Library Journal

"Feed this to animal fans."
—Kirkus

Questions & Answers with the Author

Don't Feed The Boy Discussion Guide

Selected to represent Alabama at 2013
National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.

Named a 2013 Bank Street College
Best Children's Book of the Year

"Don't Feed the Boy is a delightfully satisfying blend of action and emotion, tension and heart. Everyone should have a best friend like Whit."
—Kathryn Erskine, winnerof the National Book Award for Mockingbird

No kid knows more about zoo life than Whit. That's because he sleeps, eats and even attends home-school at the Meadowbrook Zoo. It's one of the perks of having a mother who's the zoo director and a father who's the head elephant keeper. Now that he's eleven, Whit feels trapped by the rules and routine of zoo life. With so many exotic animals, it's easy to get overlooked. But when Whit notices a mysterious girl who visits every day to draw the birds, suddenly the zoo becomes much more interesting. Who is the Bird Girl? And why does she come by herself to the zoo?

Determined to gain her trust, Whit takes the Bird Girl on his own personal tour of the zoo. He shows her his favorite animals and what happens with them behind the scenes. For Whit, having a friend his own age that he can talk to is an exciting new experience. For Stella the Bird Girl, the zoo and Whit are a necessary escape from her chaotic home life. Together they take risks in order to determine where it is they each belong. But when Stella asks Whit for an important and potentially dangerous favor, Whit discovers how complicated friendship—and freedom—can be.

Brimming with animal facts, adventure and tender truths, this heart-touching tale is about the human struggle to find one's place in the world.