UNDER FIRE

After their mother’s death from cancer, a teen girl and her older brother embark with their father on a new life.

The family has moved away from Vancouver, British Columbia, to start over on a farm. Jed, who has an unnamed intellectual disability, is thriving; he enjoys and is highly skilled at farmwork. But Poppy isn’t convinced. She dreams of traveling the world and teaching English and worries their fresh start might not have been entirely wise. But wildfires pose a more pressing concern. When their father volunteers to help fight a fire, Jed and Poppy are left on their own as the flames bear down on the farm. This simply told, breakneck story focuses on Poppy and Jed’s struggle to make their way to safety. While depth of characterization is sacrificed in favor of plot, the action is compelling. The siblings race against time to save their animals, face natural destruction and devastation, and are forced to rely on their trust in each other. The damage the fire wreaks on their community in an era of climate change is topical and dramatic but not overwrought in its presentation. Jed is competent and resourceful, able to hold his own on their journey and support Poppy. However, he’s framed entirely through narrator Poppy’s first-person perspective and often described via his struggles and symptoms. The characters are racially indeterminate.

A fast-paced, exciting survival tale for reluctant readers.