Dust Storm!

Volume XXV / Issue 27 - March 22 / 2019

Dust Storm!

Author: 
Terry Lynn Johnson
Series: 
Survivor Diaries
Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, (Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books), 2018
119 pp., hardcover, $13.99
ISBN: 
9780544970984
Grades: 
Grades 3-5
Ages: 
Ages 8-10
Review by: 
Review by Tabitha Nordby
3
Excerpt: 

When I glanced back at the cloud, I saw it had grown like a swarm of pale yellow locusts. And it was gaining on us.

I knew what it was then. And it was bigger than anything I’d seen before.

“Dust storm!” Martin screamed.

We dashed away on our bikes, trying to get ahead of it. Maybe we could outride it. Racing over uneven ground, I struggled to keep hold of my handlebars. Don’t crash into that prickly pear cactus! Keep focused. Watch out for those rocks!

Don’t look back.

“Come on!” I yelled to Martin.

I pedaled like a cyclone, pumping my legs as hard as I could. Had to be far ahead of it by now. I’d never ridden so fast. Couldn’t look behind me. No time to slow down. But how close was it?

I glanced back just as a giant wall of choking dust hit us.

Jen Chiu is excited about being one of two girls on her grade 6 geocaching trip in New Mexico although she’s disappointed that her new best friend can’t be with her. Instead, she has to put up with her mortal enemy, Martin Diaz. Jen hopes to avoid having to be around him, but her plans change when she follows Martin trying to sneak information about the first geocache clue. Suddenly a dust storm kicks up, and Jen and Martin have to rely on their survival skills and each other to make it out of the desert alive.

Fans of the “Survivor Diaries” adventure series will love being thrust into the fourth installment of this fast-paced middle school series. Author Terry Lynn Johnson is a survival expert, and her novel contains real life tips and tricks for survival in difficult situations. Dust Storm! also includes survival tips from the New Mexico Search and Rescue Council and a link to a survival game.

Recommended
Reviewer: 

Tabitha Nordby is a Readers’ Advisory and Reference Instructor in the Library and Information Technology Program at Red River College in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Subject Headings: 
Survival-Fiction
Deserts-Fiction
Dust storms-Fiction
Chihuahuan Desert-Fiction