Wonderling, The

In a world where fully human characters have power over groundlings, those with some human and some animal features, young Foxlike Thirteen lives at evil Miss Carbunkle’s orphanage where he and other groundlings are forced to work in a factory. Although small and submissive, he makes a friend when he saves Trinket from bullies and the two escape from the orphanage, desperate to find their place in the world, but when they learn Miss Carbunkle plans to steal all the music from the world, they gather friends to fight back. Suitable for read-aloud, lit circle, or independent reading, the novel introduces ideas of identity, injustice, class systems, pollution, and the impact of industrialization.