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Title: Mist

Author: Marta Palazzesi

Translator: Christopher Turner

Illustrator:

Publisher: Red Comet Press, (USA)

Date Published: 2023

Format: Hardback

Genre:

Book Category: Fiction

Age Range: 12+

Original Title: First published in Italian as Nebbia, Editrice II Castoro Srl, Italy, 2019

Country of Origin: Italy

Mist

by Marta Palazzesi
Age Range: 12+

Set in London in 1880, thirteen-year-old Clay is a mud lark, along with his friends Tod and Nucky, several of the countless boys who scavenge a living along the banks of the river Thames. One day, while trying to sell a set of tarot cards fished out of the mud, Clay stumbles upon a colourful handbill advertising ‘Smith & Sparrow’s Amazing Circus’, whose menagerie boasts “The Wild Beast of the North - the last surviving wolf in the United Kingdom.” Wolves haven’t been seen in the wild for over three centuries and Clay is drawn to the circus to see for himself.

When Clay meets Ollie, a young circus performer she agrees to take him to where the animals are kept. Here he comes face to face with the silver-coated, amber-eyed wild, fierce, and indomitable wolf. Clay names him Mist and is distressed by the cruelty metered out by the animal trainers he witnesses making him determined to do everything in his power to free Mist from such an appalling captivity. Becoming only too aware of what happens to circus animals that cannot be tamed, Clay knows his mission will be at great risk to the wolf and himself.

Italian author Marta Palazzesi’s first-person narrative, translated by Christopher Turner, is conversational in tone and she manages to keep the suspense and adventure right to the very last page. She doesn’t shy away from the sadistic cruelty inflicted on the animals at the circus but readers will be infected by Clay’s optimism and be rooting for him in his attempt to rescue Mist and set him free. A page-turning story of adventure, mixed with the reality of the harshness of life in Victorian England for boys like Clay, close friendships and ultimately a message of hope.

Mist is the first middle-grade novel from Red Comet Press and the winner of the 2020 Bologna Children’s Book Fair Strega Ragazzi Prize. Palazzesi is an award-winning author, translator, and consultant for film production companies. She is part of the Superhero Training Centre, a non-profit organisation that holds creative writing workshops for children.

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