CM Magazine: Avalanche! (Survivor Diaries).

________________ CM . . . . Volume XXIV Number 7. . . .October 20, 2017

cover
Avalanche! (Survivor Diaries).

Terry Lynn Johnson.
Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, (Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books), January, 2018.
104 pp., hardcover & epub, $13.99 (hc.)..
ISBN 978-0-544-97039-7 (hc.), ISBN 978-1-328-83077-2 (ebook).

Grades 2-5 / Ages 7-10.

Review by Janet Beauchamp.

**** /4

Reviewed from Advance Reading Copy.

excerpt:

Adrenaline surged through me as I realized what was happening. We had skied onto the lip of a dangerously loaded snowfield. It was like a gigantic dinner plate that starts breaking up. I saw cracks and felt the unstable snow shift again beneath me.

Ash! I heard Ryan yell, but there was no time.

Our avalanche lessons kicked in to my brain. I pointed my skis to the side and a little downhill. I had to get past the slab and out of the path of the sliding avalanche. A churning pile of debris swept around me, broken trees, chunks of ice.

Avalanche is the next title in the “Survivor Diaries” series, stories of dramatic adventures, with the first book having been Overboard!. In this instalment, 12-year-old twins Ashley and Ryan are skiing in the mountains of Wyoming when Ryan decides to go off trail on an adventure. Ashley follows him, and then the avalanche strikes them both. Ashley surfaces first and must use her knowledge and instincts to save her brother.

If you have a reluctant reader in your home, then Avalanche is the book for you. I could not put it down. Was Ashley going to find Ryan? Would their parents figure out that they had left the trail in time to realize that they were hit by the avalanche? The story is well-told by real life survival expert Terry Lynn Johnson. I also learned about wolverines while reading this engaging survival story. I would highly recommend this book, and I look forward to the next two instalments, Lost and Dust Storm.

Highly Recommended.

Janet Beauchamp, a high school teacher, teacher-librarian and mother of three girls, lives in L’Amable, ON.

This Creative Commons license allows you to download the review and share it with others as long as you credit the CM Association. You cannot change the review in any way or use it commercially.

Commercial use is available through a contract with the CM Association. This Creative Commons license allows publishers whose works are being reviewed to download and share said CM reviews provided you credit the CM Association.