The setting for "Wilding" is well thought out. Although Yolen does not specify a certain time for the story's events, she drops clues about the time throughout the narrative. The slang of the teenagers is different from modern slang but carries traces of modern slang in it. For instance, the word coolish is close enough to the modern use of cool to suggest that the story does not take place very far into the future. On the other hand, the bigoted term woggers is different enough to help create a tone of otherworldliness, of being significantly different in some ways from modern times.

Furthermore, youngsters use makeup and jewelry in ways that would seem unusual in the early 2000s. Yolen makes a point of this custom at the beginning by declaring, "Zena bounced down the brownstone steps two at a time, her face powdered a light green." The...