MMGM: Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms

I'm posting today with the fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle. Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews. I've been discovering some great reads there--possibly including the one I'm reviewing today (I'm not really sure; it was on my library wish list).

 

 Title: Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms

Author: Katherine Rundell; read by Biana Amato

Publication Info: 2014, Recorded Books. 7 hours. First published by Faber & Faber, 2011, as The Girl Savage

Source: Library

Publisher's Blurb (via Goodreads):
Even a life on the untamed plains of Africa can’t prepare Wilhelmina for the wilds of an English boarding school in this lovely and lyrical novel from the author of Rooftoppers, which Booklist called “a glorious adventure.”

Wilhelmina Silver’s world is golden. Living half-wild on an African farm with her horse, her monkey, and her best friend, every day is beautiful. But when her home is sold and Will is sent away to boarding school in England, the world becomes impossibly difficult. Lions and hyenas are nothing compared to packs of vicious schoolgirls. Where can a girl run to in London? And will she have the courage to survive?

From the author of the “witty, inventively poetic” Rooftoppers comes an utterly beautiful story that’s sure to be treasured.

 

My Review:
This really was a lovely book, especially the part that takes place in Africa. There were moments in England when I was a little disappointed in seeing the standard boarding-school stereotypes, but the author manages to break out of those and the ending was a gift.

The time period setting for this book isn't completely clear, which at first disconcerted me but then ceased to matter. I felt while reading about Will's life in Africa that the author has been reading Beryl Markham's West With the Night, with it's tales of that famous aviator's wild childhood in Africa. Maybe she did. And maybe she wondered what would have happened to Beryl if she'd been sent to England to school. If so, we are all winners for it. Will struggles, but to my delight manages to find some ways in which the skills she learned it the bush can be used even in London, even as she makes plans that suffer from all the naiveté of a pre-teen from the bush!

There are some of the time-honored cliches of the genre, including the snotty school girls and an evil stepmother, but always with a twist. The stepmother isn't--she really shouldn't have any say over Will's future at all. And the girls--but you have to read it to find out about them.

I enjoyed hearing this as an audio book, as the narrator captured the accents of the different characters very well and that really added an enriching element.

My Recommendation:
This story does contain the deaths of parents and some situations that might bother younger children. I'd say for kids of 10 up, with due sensitivity to the issues of grief and loss.

 

FTC Disclosure: I checked Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."  



©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2025
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