Wild Rescuers 4 – Sentinels in the Deep Ocean

Stacy Plays' Sentinels in the Deep Ocean is a Wild Rescuers adventure for 8 year olds about a girl who lives in a forest cave with a pack of wolves with superpowers.

What happens

Stacy's parents went missing in a helicopter when she was small, and the wolves raised her. Each one has a gift. Everest can read her thoughts and blend into the background. Basil is super fast. Wink can't be hurt. Noah can hold his breath for as long as he likes. Tucker can heal. And Addison is the brains of the pack (she wears glasses!).

It picks up just after a trip to the frozen tundra. Tucker is worn out and may have lost his healing power. And a tiny rescued cub, Pipsqueak, won't eat or drink.

So Stacy has to do the thing she finds hardest. Go into the village and talk to people. She gives a false name. She sweet-talks a farmer who's sure he's just seen a wolf (Everest was hiding among his sheep). And she meets a vet who knows exactly what to do, with a lovely surprise about Pipsqueak.

In between rescues, Stacy is decoding an explorer's diary written in a secret code. It hints that there could be other wolves with powers out there, and that sends the pack off across their world, eventually as far as the deep ocean.

This is a cosy kind of adventure. There's a cave with a crackling fire, pumpkin stew, a chicken roosting on the bookshelf and a bat called Milo, who Stacy thinks of as their receptionist. If your reader loves animals, they'll love all the looking after.

It's thoughtful too. Stacy wonders whether she should start going to school. And a visit to a dog shelter in the village shows her that people abandon their pets, which she finds very hard to understand.

It's the fourth Wild Rescuers book and it talks about earlier trips, but it explains enough to follow along. Do you have a reader who'd happily swap their bedroom for a cave full of animals? This one's for them.

What to read next

For another girl who shares a snowy forest with wolves, try The Wolf Wilder. It's a little older and darker. Feo and her mother teach wolves that rich people have tamed how to be wild again.