FIRE ON THE WIND

It's August 1933 in the great forests of central Oregon, and it is so hot and dry at the Blue Star logging camp that Storie Faye, eighth grader, can't blow out a match—it keeps relighting itself. A fire starts and at first folks aren't too worried, but tension mounts as new fires pop up. Loggers turn into firefighters, until the fires come together, creating an 18-mile-long wall of flame, and getting out alive is all that matters. At the center of this drama is Storie, torn between the worlds of the camp, where her father is a logger, and town, where the schooling could lead to college. In the crisis, she begins the painful process of questioning her lifelong assumptions. Crew (Nekomah Creek, 1994, etc.) has a keen eye for the small details that make a character live and breathe. The dialogue is peppered with colorful logging language; in fact, most of the fine characterization is developed through conversation, giving the story a rare, consuming immediacy. Storie, her family, and neighbors jump off the page to tell their tale, and what a story it is. (Fiction. 12+)