“It’s a fox!”

Not a live fox, but a furry orange lump lying on the side of the highway, eagerly (and illegally) rescued from its irreverent roadside grave by a mother on her way home from a primitive skills family camp with her two daughters.

This first line and opening story of Why We Need to Be Wild: One Woman’s Quest for Ancient Human Answers to 21st Century Problems by Jessica Carew Kraft immediately drew me in.

You see, I too have a fox story.

My father rescued a roadkilled fox from the side of the road near our suburban home. He brought it back, strung it up in our outdoor shed, and showed me, a small ten-year-old, how to skin it—teaching me about my Métis heritage and the importance of primitive skills along the way.

From those first pages, I sensed a kindred spirit in Jessica and looked forward to journeying alongside her, hoping to glean some new insights along the way.

Why We Need to Be Wild did that, but it also surprised me.

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This comes at no extra cost to you and helps support Backwoods Mama.

What You Need to Know About Why We Need to Be Wild

Why We Need to Be Wild: One Woman’s Quest for Ancient Human Answers to 21st Century Problems is a non-fiction book, but it’s not a “how-to” or prescriptive guide. Although chapter titles like Weaving, Gathering, and Survivaling might make a reader think they’ll learn specific skills, this isn’t that kind of book.

Instead, Why We Need to Be Wild is:

• Part memoir, following Jessica Carew Kraft, a married mother of two daughters working in the Bay Area tech world, as she quits her high-profile career to “rewild” herself by learning primitive skills.

• Part journalistic reportage, exploring the rewilding movement more broadly and introducing the reader to the people, ideas, and controversies that shape it.

The book moves between Jessica’s personal journey and her role as an observer, weaving together story, research, and reflection on what it might mean to live more “wildly” in a very modern world.

What I Liked About This Book

Strong, thoughtful writing

Why We Need to Be Wild is well written and well researched! The author’s journalistic background really shines through. If you enjoy digging deeply into a topic and want to know more about the rewilding movement and primitive/ancestral skills, I definitely recommend this book.

Jessica doesn’t just repeat talking points; she shows up, participates, interviews, and then reflects. That level of engagement comes through on the page which I really loved.

Immersive, honest journey

I also appreciated that Jessica takes on the role of immersive journalist, rewilding herself through the process of discovery and learning. She doesn’t hover on the sidelines. She practices what she’s writing about, sometimes awkwardly, sometimes bravely.

Her curiosity and openness allow the reader to experience her struggles in a real and honest way, sometimes to the point of discomfort. As a reader (and as a mother), I felt pulled into her questions, fears, and hopes.

Willingness to tackle hard topics

Along the way, the author doesn’t hold back from challenging topics and thoughts. She considers how the “domestication of humans” may be negatively impacting our health and happiness, how our society might need to reorient itself toward nature to survive, and how difficult and inaccessible this can be for many people.

These aren’t easy conversations, but they are necessary ones, and I appreciated her willingness to wrestle with them.

What I Found Challenging in This Book

Even though I’m glad I read Why We Need to Be Wild, there were parts that I found challenging, both in how the story was told and in some of the underlying tones.

A shift into “reporter mode”

Although Jessica’s story arcs from beginning to end, she sometimes feels distant in parts of the book. In these sections she steps back into the role of journalist and reporter, examining the rewilding movement and offering a glimpse of the ideas, personalities, and controversies involved.

While I found these sections interesting (I do enjoy academic papers and research), it sometimes felt as though I was reading a different book. I could hear myself saying, “But what do you think about all this, Jessica? Where are you in all this? I want to hear your story!”

She does go on to answer those questions, but often not with the depth or rawness I hoped for.

Fractures in faith, family, and community

As Jessica goes through her rewilding process, fractures do occur. Her marriage breaks apart, she distances herself from her Jewish faith, and she struggles to find true community.

These separations saddened me. I believe that reconnection with nature doesn’t need to result in a loss of faith and relationships. In my own life, and in my encouragement of other families, I hope that nature connection deepens our relationships and our rootedness, not pull them apart, so I felt a kind of grief reading about those fractures. Of course, these fractures may have occurred in time regardless of Jessica’s rewilding experience, but as a reader they felt very much intertwined with it.

A creeping “all-or-nothing” tone

Towards the later part of the book, the tone shifts away from an inviting “journey with me” to something that sometimes feels more pushy or “all-or-nothing.” Jessica seems more distanced from her daughters after her divorce, and the mama-daughter stories that graced the beginning of the book are less prominent.

I wondered what propelled this shift and how the book might have been different had the earlier tone of connection and family stayed more consistent throughout.

Summing It Up

In Why We Need to Be Wild, Jessica Carew Kraft offers an eye-opening look at the rewilding movement while weaving her own rewilding journey throughout. It’s an engaging blend of immersive journalism and memoir that both challenges and encourages readers to consider how reconnecting with nature might help us survive and thrive.

At the same time, there were moments when this book made me feel uneasy.

As I reflected on those feelings, I noticed they stemmed from an undercurrent of negativity toward our wider North American culture (which I won’t deny has major problems), especially the sense that those who live “in the system” are almost lost causes. At times it felt as if, as long as a few “rewilders” were out there, there was little point in helping others connect with nature where they are.

Ultimately, this is where my perspective diverges from the one I sensed in parts of the book.

I don’t believe in an all-or-nothing approach to creating positive change. I strongly believe that reconnection with nature can happen no matter where people live—city or countryside, apartment or acreage, busy family and all. Small, ordinary, faithful steps toward wildness matter just as much as big, dramatic ones. This hopeful, accessible approach to nature connection is at the heart of my forthcoming book (February 2026), Beyond the Front Door: Embracing Nature for Happier and Healthier Families, which focuses on weaving simple, doable moments of wildness into everyday family life.

If you’re curious about the rewilding movement, interested in primitive skills, or drawn to stories of people questioning mainstream culture, Why We Need to Be Wild is worth reading. And if you finish it feeling unsettled, that might be an invitation, not necessarily to abandon your current life, but to ask how you can weave a little more wildness and nature connection into the life you already have.