First and foremost, know that I am going to give you a spoiler during this review. I just finished this book. Literally. It is still sitting within a few inches of me as I knew I needed to get my thoughts down as soon as I finished.
I have been making my way through the list of books that are up for next school year’s Truman nominees since this summer. I believe I have about 7 left now. This book was one that intrigued me from the very beginning, but I wasn’t able to get to until recently.
My friend who is also reading these books referred to is as the “better Alaskan one”. (I reviewed the other book set in Alaska here.)
You know from the very first page that the main character, Jess, is alone in the wilderness. Within the first few pages, the reader learns that Jess’s mom has been killed in a car crash (one that also involved and injured Jess), and she is being forced to move with her dad, who she barely knows, in Alaska. At least that’s what is told to her, her dad actually lives somewhere else, although we never get the exact location. Somewhere north. Somewhere in the wilderness. Somewhere alone.
The first half of the book goes back and forth between “before” and “after.” Before her father died, and after. I won’t get into the subplot of the story, because that will give away too much. The second part of the book is where the story really picks up.
Here are my thoughts – many middle school students will not get into this book. It took a long time for the story to really develop into much more than girl vs. nature. In fact the vast majority of the book is simply describing what she is doing while alone in the Northern wilderness. My students would not be able to make it through this book because there are just paragraphs and paragraphs of description.
Now, as an adult who has developed better reading stamina…okay, just kidding, I, too, had a hard time reading every word on every page. I ended up skim reading a lot of it.
Apparently Ben Affleck is going to make it in to a movie. I do think this book could be turned in to a great, suspenseful movie. As a book intended for middle school students, it wasn’t the greatest.
Oh, and the dog dies, so don’t get attached.
Michelle Reads & Writes 