Author: Pam Withers
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books: I Am Still Alive by Kate Alice Marshall
Far North by Will Hobbs
Rating:
Summary (provided by publisher): First a Canadian Rockies avalanche kills their parents. Then Children’s Services threatens to separate them. That’s when the three Gunnarsson kids decide to run away into the mountains and fend for themselves until the oldest turns eighteen and becomes their legal guardian. Not many would dare. But Jon, Korka, and Aron’s parents ran a survival school.
Turns out their plan is full of holes. When food and equipment go missing and illness and injury strike, things get scary. They’re even less prepared for encounters with dangerous animals and a sketchy woods dweller. On top of that, grief, cold, hunger, and sibling infighting threaten to tear them apart, while the search parties are closing in on them. Do Jon, Korka, and Aron really have what it takes to survive?
My opinion: This book is a pretty solid example of the survival story. We get a trio of kids matching wits with nature, using the knowledge their parents gave them to keep themselves alive. Their personality differences provide the bulk of the conflict. Most of the plot complications are the result of random bad luck. There are some unique details but the plot goes a lot of the places we would expect. The plot is simple and focused largely on practicalities rather than any character development, but it remains a fairly exciting read.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
