TORNADO

After school unexpectedly lets out early due to a power outage, 16-year-old Cam heads to a burger place with his friends.

He knows he has to be back in time to meet his 6-year-old brother, Peter, off the bus, never expecting that a powerful tornado will touch down, making that impossible. The tornado flips the car he’s in, killing outright two of his pals and leaving the third, Chrissy, seriously injured. Stunned and hurt himself, Cam is taken back to town by a truck driver, abandoning Chrissy to try to find his brother. Learning that the bus dropped him off before the tornado struck, Cam stops at his nearly destroyed home, where he lies to his parents about where he’s been. After he’s caught in the lie, his furious dad lashes out angrily while his alcoholic mother seems unable to understand the full situation. Struggling with guilt, grief, and rejection, Cam desperately searches for Peter and then has to protect him from vicious looters. The story wraps up quickly, providing a perhaps improbable feel-good ending. Presented in simple text with ample white space, this fast-paced, suspenseful tale is perfect for reluctant readers. Although exposition is necessarily limited, Cam’s angst over leaving Chrissy behind and missing his brother is heartfelt and fully believable. Main characters seem to be White by default; diversity in secondary characters is cued by surname.

Full of action and brief enough to entice even the most unwilling readers.