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The Wildes #2
The Vaquita
Ring and Asia Wilde's wild life is anything but ordinary. Instead of attending school, they travel the world with their tutor and parents (scientists who work to protect endangered species). On their last adventure, they swung through the Amazon rainforest to save their mom from vile kidnappers--while defending the forest's population of golden lion tamarins. Now they're in Baja, Mexico--the Sea of Cortez to be exact--searching for the endangered vaquita and finding danger and conspiracy instead.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2023
About the author
Roland Smith
157 books848 followersRoland Smith is an American author of young adult fiction as well as nonfiction books for children.
Smith was born in Portland, Oregon, and graduated from Portland State University and, following a part-time job at the Oregon Zoo in Portland, began a 20-year career as a zookeeper, both at the Oregon Zoo and the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, Washington. After working to save wildlife following the Exxon Valdez oil spill, in 1990, he published his first book, Sea Otter Rescue, a non-fiction account of the process of animal rescue. Smith continued to draw upon his zoo experiences for other non-fiction titles, including Journey of the Red Wolf, which won an Oregon Book Award in 1996.
In 1997, Smith published his first novel, Thundercave. The book continues Smith's theme, as teenage protagonist Jacob Lansa follows his biologist father to Africa where the father is researching elephants. The Lansa character also appears in 1999
s Jaguar and 2001's The Last Lobo. Other novels by Smith include The Captain's Dog: My Journey with the Lewis and Clark Tribe, Zach's Lie, Jack's Run, Cryptid Hunters, Sasquatch (novel), about a boy who searches for Bigfoot. Peak, the story of a teenage boy obsessed with climbing mountains, Elephant Run and Tentacles(novel). In 2008, Smith published the first book in the series I, Q, titled Independence Hall. Smith's books have won "Book of the Year" awards in Colorado, Nevada, South Carolina, and Florida, as well as in his native Oregon. Smith lives in Tualatin, Oregon with his wife and stepchildren.
Smith was born in Portland, Oregon, and graduated from Portland State University and, following a part-time job at the Oregon Zoo in Portland, began a 20-year career as a zookeeper, both at the Oregon Zoo and the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, Washington. After working to save wildlife following the Exxon Valdez oil spill, in 1990, he published his first book, Sea Otter Rescue, a non-fiction account of the process of animal rescue. Smith continued to draw upon his zoo experiences for other non-fiction titles, including Journey of the Red Wolf, which won an Oregon Book Award in 1996.
In 1997, Smith published his first novel, Thundercave. The book continues Smith's theme, as teenage protagonist Jacob Lansa follows his biologist father to Africa where the father is researching elephants. The Lansa character also appears in 1999
s Jaguar and 2001's The Last Lobo. Other novels by Smith include The Captain's Dog: My Journey with the Lewis and Clark Tribe, Zach's Lie, Jack's Run, Cryptid Hunters, Sasquatch (novel), about a boy who searches for Bigfoot. Peak, the story of a teenage boy obsessed with climbing mountains, Elephant Run and Tentacles(novel). In 2008, Smith published the first book in the series I, Q, titled Independence Hall. Smith's books have won "Book of the Year" awards in Colorado, Nevada, South Carolina, and Florida, as well as in his native Oregon. Smith lives in Tualatin, Oregon with his wife and stepchildren.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 4, 2023
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
Having saved their mother from kidnappers in The Amazon, Asia and Ring are back, helping their father plan a conference about the plight of vaquitas in Baja, Mexico. Their mother is still in Brazil reintroducing golden lion tamarinds to the wild, and their father is rushing about trying to get the conference details ready. The children are left with the bumbling Professor Bob, their tutor, but little schooling gets done. Asia assesses the situation and arranges to have the pool filled with water and cleans it. Ring, going into town for food, meets Flaco Mendoza, who knows their father, and is soon setting off to fish with him, leaving the keys in the vehicle he has taken, and his phone in his back pack, worrying Asia! He does learn a bit about what is stressing the vaquita population, which is crucial, since the animals don't do well in captivity. The Wildes conservation center in Texas is installing marine environments, but Dr. Jack is not necessarily planning on bringing animals back with him due to this fact. The children meet a wide variety of people planning on attending the conference, including workers from Sea World in San Diego, Scott Bendix, a suspicious but gregarious actor, Maxine Green, a journalist, and George Sweeney, from The Animal Protection Army, which is opposed to the Wildes' work. The children do have some allies, including the returning Tom Cotten, the father of Asia's friend Caleb, and Flaco's nephew Carlos. When Asia and Ring find a vaquita mother and her pup tangled in nets, they work with Flaco to save the animals. Will their knowledge of YouTube videos be enough to save the day?
Like the Villalobos family in Melissa Cristina Márquez's Wild Survival books or Barn Whimbril in Joseph Monninger's Dragged From Under series, Asia and Ring are well-versed in conservation and trying their best to save the local animals wherever their somewhat inept parents have taken them. They manage to do this with very little adult supervision, which made me worry, but will delight younger readers. I appreciated that fact that Smith at least kept them alive!
I thought this would evolve into another mystery, with the introduction of so many interesting and possibly villainous characters, but this book was more centered around saving the vaquitas. It would have been helpful to have a short chapter at the back with information about this increasingly rare and endangered marine animal, since Smith is a fantastic nonfiction science writer who has also published They Are Here: How Invasive Species Are Spoiling Our Ecosystem.
Even in mostly landlocked Ohio, there are many children who are interested in marince ecology. Science teachers will be glad to pick up The Wildes along with Rorby's How to Speak Dolphin, Henderson's Young Captain Nemo, O'Hearn's Escape from Atlantis, Rivers's A Possibility of Whales, and McCarthy's B.E.S.T. World series.
Having saved their mother from kidnappers in The Amazon, Asia and Ring are back, helping their father plan a conference about the plight of vaquitas in Baja, Mexico. Their mother is still in Brazil reintroducing golden lion tamarinds to the wild, and their father is rushing about trying to get the conference details ready. The children are left with the bumbling Professor Bob, their tutor, but little schooling gets done. Asia assesses the situation and arranges to have the pool filled with water and cleans it. Ring, going into town for food, meets Flaco Mendoza, who knows their father, and is soon setting off to fish with him, leaving the keys in the vehicle he has taken, and his phone in his back pack, worrying Asia! He does learn a bit about what is stressing the vaquita population, which is crucial, since the animals don't do well in captivity. The Wildes conservation center in Texas is installing marine environments, but Dr. Jack is not necessarily planning on bringing animals back with him due to this fact. The children meet a wide variety of people planning on attending the conference, including workers from Sea World in San Diego, Scott Bendix, a suspicious but gregarious actor, Maxine Green, a journalist, and George Sweeney, from The Animal Protection Army, which is opposed to the Wildes' work. The children do have some allies, including the returning Tom Cotten, the father of Asia's friend Caleb, and Flaco's nephew Carlos. When Asia and Ring find a vaquita mother and her pup tangled in nets, they work with Flaco to save the animals. Will their knowledge of YouTube videos be enough to save the day?
Like the Villalobos family in Melissa Cristina Márquez's Wild Survival books or Barn Whimbril in Joseph Monninger's Dragged From Under series, Asia and Ring are well-versed in conservation and trying their best to save the local animals wherever their somewhat inept parents have taken them. They manage to do this with very little adult supervision, which made me worry, but will delight younger readers. I appreciated that fact that Smith at least kept them alive!
I thought this would evolve into another mystery, with the introduction of so many interesting and possibly villainous characters, but this book was more centered around saving the vaquitas. It would have been helpful to have a short chapter at the back with information about this increasingly rare and endangered marine animal, since Smith is a fantastic nonfiction science writer who has also published They Are Here: How Invasive Species Are Spoiling Our Ecosystem.
Even in mostly landlocked Ohio, there are many children who are interested in marince ecology. Science teachers will be glad to pick up The Wildes along with Rorby's How to Speak Dolphin, Henderson's Young Captain Nemo, O'Hearn's Escape from Atlantis, Rivers's A Possibility of Whales, and McCarthy's B.E.S.T. World series.
September 18, 2023
In his new series, The Wildes, Roland Smith has created a super entertaining, fact filled adventure, where his two main characters, Ring and Asia, experience an education every kid should have access to at some time in their life.
For many years the educational establishment has championed experiential learning as the best way to gain a bored student interest—or any students—getting them away from their electronic generated entertainment, inspiring life skills by offering real world situations. True to form, Smith once again packs these adventures with timely issues that in so many ways, impact our lives and the lives of future generations in the preservation of rapidly disappearing animals and eco systems. To do so, Smith bring his main characters face to face with issues like poaching, environment degradation, and corruption.
In the first two adventures of the Wilde’s trilogy, Rise an Asia, teen brother and sister, are great examples of this alternative learning experience. Smith infuses these kids with an appreciation for vanishing wildlife and environments that is so appealing, that students reading this series could well be inspired to pick up the fight. Risa and Asia have the very good fortune to be children of research biologists, whose home base and lab are in Texas. Their jobs however, require them to study endangered species like the golden tamarind monkey in the Amazon, or the Vaquita, a vanishing species of dolphin off the coast of south America, in their natural habitats. To make sure more traditional aspects of their education are covered, a full-time tutor travels with them. What kid wouldn’t be more excited by, “zip lining between research labs high in the Amazon forest, tracking animal prints, and taking on three-hundred-pound anacondas than filling out worksheets?”
The stories Smith tells, not found in dry, environmental textbooks, includes an illegal conspiracy that threatens parts of the Amazon Rainforest. To silence the research efforts of Ring and Asia’s parents, the parents are kidnapped to prevent their efforts in preserving the environment for the special monkey. The outlaw’s hope is to keep their mining operation free from any interference.
For book two, we are introduced to a drug trafficking desperado in the Yucatan, whose mission is to kill all dolphin species, to guarantee slaughter of another species that pays them huge dividends, while keeping the environmentalist spotlight off, so they can conduct their slaughter with impunity.
I can’t wait for book three of The Wildes, so hurry up Mr. Smith.
For many years the educational establishment has championed experiential learning as the best way to gain a bored student interest—or any students—getting them away from their electronic generated entertainment, inspiring life skills by offering real world situations. True to form, Smith once again packs these adventures with timely issues that in so many ways, impact our lives and the lives of future generations in the preservation of rapidly disappearing animals and eco systems. To do so, Smith bring his main characters face to face with issues like poaching, environment degradation, and corruption.
In the first two adventures of the Wilde’s trilogy, Rise an Asia, teen brother and sister, are great examples of this alternative learning experience. Smith infuses these kids with an appreciation for vanishing wildlife and environments that is so appealing, that students reading this series could well be inspired to pick up the fight. Risa and Asia have the very good fortune to be children of research biologists, whose home base and lab are in Texas. Their jobs however, require them to study endangered species like the golden tamarind monkey in the Amazon, or the Vaquita, a vanishing species of dolphin off the coast of south America, in their natural habitats. To make sure more traditional aspects of their education are covered, a full-time tutor travels with them. What kid wouldn’t be more excited by, “zip lining between research labs high in the Amazon forest, tracking animal prints, and taking on three-hundred-pound anacondas than filling out worksheets?”
The stories Smith tells, not found in dry, environmental textbooks, includes an illegal conspiracy that threatens parts of the Amazon Rainforest. To silence the research efforts of Ring and Asia’s parents, the parents are kidnapped to prevent their efforts in preserving the environment for the special monkey. The outlaw’s hope is to keep their mining operation free from any interference.
For book two, we are introduced to a drug trafficking desperado in the Yucatan, whose mission is to kill all dolphin species, to guarantee slaughter of another species that pays them huge dividends, while keeping the environmentalist spotlight off, so they can conduct their slaughter with impunity.
I can’t wait for book three of The Wildes, so hurry up Mr. Smith.
August 31, 2023
It's hard for me to resist a book with strong characters and one that focuses on environmentalist who want to save a part of the world. In this, the second series featuring the aptly-named Wildes, siblings Asia and Ring are in a small Mexican town for a conference on critically endangered marine animals. Their mother is dealing with the aftermath of violence in Brazil where she has been working to save golden lion tamarins. When the youngsters rescue two vaquitas ensnared in a net, the race is on to help them recover and to figure out why their species is dying out. Snappy writing, appealing characters, deeply committed rescuers, and a villain or two make this one a fast, engaging read that will please middle graders who are drawn to eco-warriors and the thought that they, too, can make a difference. While some of the events might seem hard to believe, the author is careful to highlight the many sides to the challenges involved in saving a species.
September 25, 2023
Another eco adventure with Asia and Ring Wilde. Seeking to highlight the disappearance of the smallest of the dolphin family, the vaquita, Jack Wilde is hosting a summit of marine biologists and environmentalists in a small Mexican village on the Sea of Cortez. Not quite as hair-raising as The Amazon (Book One), there is still plenty of danger and intrigue in this story. Smith also manages to present a balanced view of captivity in dealing with endangered species. Without anthropomorphizing the vaquitas, the story builds sympathy for them as well as an understanding of the local economy. This would make a good read aloud for an intermediate grade classroom.
January 7, 2024
The second entry in Smith’s new series continues the adventures of Asia and Ring Wild, children of famous nature conservationists. Book 2 takes them to Baja Mexico to try to help save the vaquita, critically endangered porpoises. When they rescue a mother vaquita and her calf, they draw unwanted attention to illegal poaching activity. Readers who love animals and adventure will love this book (and series)!
April 21, 2025
I enjoyed this environmental adventure book. I didn’t read the previous book, but Asia and Ring were still well rounded and interesting. I did think the book could use a little less talk and a bit more action but I still enjoyed the plot, which sheds important light on multiple endangered species and the complicated issues that surround them.
My favorite Easter egg: a character in the book is meeting a famous actor, and says “I loved you in Beneath,” which is the title of another Roland Smith book. So in the world of. The Wildes, Roland’s other book has been made into a movie. Hahaha, I love it!
My favorite Easter egg: a character in the book is meeting a famous actor, and says “I loved you in Beneath,” which is the title of another Roland Smith book. So in the world of. The Wildes, Roland’s other book has been made into a movie. Hahaha, I love it!
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November 16, 2023I think the author was trying too hard to make a segue into book 3. The first half of the book is about the vaquita and has next to no action/adventure in it. It's nothing like the first book in that sense. I was expecting more danger. I will still read book 3, but I'm hoping we get less rescue and more adventure.
November 10, 2025
I love the vaquitas in this book, and the parts with them I liked. However, it seemed like most of the story was a mystery about Matias and them preparing for the summit. It was a good story, just not much action with the vaquitas.
November 22, 2024
A very exciting, adventurous book. Children will love this middle-grade book.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews