Bigfoot and the Wild Boys

It is the summer holiday before Year Seven, and Joe is determined to find a way that he will not be known as ‘average Joe’ as he has been called throughout Primary. His best friend, Tiago, has a reputation for his affinity for foreign languages, speaking Portuguese and Italian.

Both boys are huge fans of a vlogger called Wildman Mike who is a survivalist. Wildman Mike has stated that there is a Bigfoot in the boys’ local woods so Joe, accompanied by a reluctant Tiago, decides that they will both try to find it before Wildman Mike, thereby becoming distinctly un-average.

Do the boys succeed and what do they find out about Wildman Mike along the way?

Pearson’s survival adventure is comedic bordering on farcical and shows strong friendship between the boys. Because Wildman Mike turns out to be very much only a survivalist for show, the author encourages readers to question media portrayals of people they admire. This is a healthy idea to place in the minds of young readers aged nine upwards. They are likely to laugh uproariously at the mention of ‘bum thunder.’

Bitskoff’s illustrations, some of them full page, add much to the description of the wildness of the landscape that Pearson creates, in which the boys must survive. They also bring another layer of humour which complements Pearson’s own.