Synopses & Reviews
What begins as a training run with sled dogs turns into a race against time for Tatum and her new friend, a Siberian Yupik boy named Cole. When a freak blizzard hits this remote island off the coast of Alaska, the duo seeks shelter overnight in a dilapidated hunting cabin. Their harrowing ordeal goes from bad to worse when wind-driven snow forces them to risk an alternate route. Stranded in the untamed wilderness, they must rely on each other—as well as their faithful huskies—to survive sub-zero temperatures and bone-numbing exhaustion. Worse still, their food supply is dangerously low. The most daunting decision comes when the strongest dog runs away. One person must go for help, while one must stay behind. Either way, they'll both be alone in the wild for an uncertain amount of time.
Review
"A page-turner full of white-knuckle action. . . . Readers will be riveted until the end."
—Publishers Weekly
"[A] thoroughly engaging and incredibly suspenseful survival story. . . Well-crafted, moving and gripping."
—Kirkus
"Debut novelist Johnson links character to setting by showing how Vicky uses her knowledge of the land and copes with the elements, creates shelter, and snares animals in order to survive."
—The Horn Book Magazine
"The high-stakes adventure and episodic nature of the chapters will make this book an easy sell for reluctant readers."
—School Library Journal
Synopsis
A middle-grade novel of high adventure set in Alaska about a girl with her own dog team who finds an injured sledder in the wilderness. How they survive for the next few days makes for gripping adventure reading.
Synopsis
Victoria Secord, a fourteen-year-old Alaskan dogsled racer, loses her way on a routine outing with her dogs. With food gone and temperatures dropping, her survival and that of her dogs and the mysterious boy she meets in the woods is entirely up to her.
The author Terry Lynn Johnson is a musher herself, and her crackling writing puts readers at the reins as Victoria and Chris experience setbacks, mistakes, and small triumphs in their wilderness adventure.
About the Author
Travel writer SHERRY SHAHAN (Frozen Stiff) not only talks the talk but walks the walk. She has written many magazine and newspaper articles based on dozens of press trips to the 49th state. Her details of the unforgiving environment and its challenges are both authentic and startling. She has also authored the photo-illustrated Dashing Through The Snow: The Story of the Jr. Iditarod.