FernFolio » survival

Chocolate River Rescue by Jennifer McGrath Kent

fernfolio — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:33:15 +0000

Sent outside to enjoy the wintery weather, Shawn Mahoney and his younger brother, Craig, along with Shawn’s best friend, Tony, wander over to the new bridge built near their homes in Riverview. The bridge, which spans the Petitcoudiac river, links their town with the city of Moncton, New Brunswick.
Standing on the bridge watching the river below, which looks like a lumpy chocolate milkshake, with its brown water and chunks of ice and slush, Tony spies a Manga Warriors card lying on the ice under the bridge and soon the three boys slip and slide their way down to claim it. Wrestling playfully, they look up to see a police officer running toward them pointing and yelling, but cannot imagine what he might be trying to tell them until they hear a crack. It is then that they realize that the ice they are standing on it about to break away from the bank. Before they can make it to safety, a second crack sends the ice and the boys onto the river. Though the police officer tries to rescue them further down river, the boys spin rapidly beyond his reach, and the ice they are perched on heads toward the Bay of Fundy.
Nearby, Petra prepares to spend her birthday skiing with her uncle Daryl, a fire-fighter. When they pick up the emergency message on the police scanner in Daryl’s truck, the two join the rescue efforts, hoping to be able to put to use the zodiac inflatable boat that Daryl happens to have on a trailer on the back of his truck. But, when they reach an access point where they can launch the inflatable, Daryl is badly injured when the boat falls on his arm. With her uncle being cared for by a passing motorist, Petra decides that she must carry out the rescue attempt on her own. She gets the boat into the icy waters and heads out into the river in search of the missing boys.
As darkness falls and the temperature begins to dip, the four kids must draw upon all of their strength and ingenuity to survive until Search and Rescue can find them.
Based on a true story, Chocolate River Rescue is a fast-paced adventure that will have you cheering for its young heroes!
FernFolio Editor

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

fernfolio — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 01:09:18 +0000

Flying northwest in a single engine plane to spend the summer in the oil fields of northern Canada with his engineer father, thirteen year-old Brian Robeson is angry over his parents’ recent divorce yet eager to see his father again, after several months’ absence. The pilot seems friendly, and shows Brian how to hold the plane on course as they wing northward, but is preoccupied by a bad case of heartburn, one that proves, in fact, to be a heart attack. When the pilot suddenly dies at the controls, Brian is left alone to fly the plane and to think about what will happen when it runs out of fuel.
After the plane crash lands on a northern lake and sinks, Brian drags himself to shore and finds himself lost and alone in the wilderness. He overcomes pain and injury to find food and shelter, and make fire to ward off mosquitos and other, larger animals, hopeful that a search plane will rapidly find him and get him home safely where he belongs. Instead, the plane, when it comes, does not spot the boy and Brian must face the terrible truth that he will not be found.
So begins the story of how a young boy overcomes great challenges to survive in the wilderness, teaching himself to fish and hunt and store and cook food, and to watch and listen to and feel all that surrounds him so that he can protect himself from predators such as bears and wolves, and, far more challenging, to find within himself the mental strength of character to endure and thrive alone.
Published over twenty years ago, Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet, is a classic survival story; the author’s spare writing style has an almost mesmerising quality, and his descriptions of Brian’s hard-won victories, both large and small, stir the reader’s heart and imagination. A must-read novel!
FernFolio Editor

Baboon by David Jones

fernfolio — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:17:22 +0000

Fourteen year-old Gerry Copeland has mixed feelings about spending six months of every year living in a camp on the African veldt while his scientist parents study baboons. He misses his friends, going to the movies, watching television, indoor plumbing. Returning from a supply run to Arusha, where they have stocked up on food and materials, Gerry looks at the rainstorm from the plane window and worries about getting back safely to camp. When one of the plane’s engines stalls, the pilot yells at Gerry and his father to throw the cargo out through the cargo doors, but it rapidly becomes clear the plane is going down.
Gerry regains consciousness to find himself surrounded by baboons, only these animals seem much larger than those in the troop his parents are studying. The baboons appear to be conferring about him, then one of the baboons draws closer, and Gerry notices he has no eyes, that his face seems almost mask-like. The baboon presses his muzzle to Gerry’s face, and the boy has the sensation that the baboon’s face melds with his own.
When he next awakens, Gerry finds himself lying in the grass, close to where his parents’ baboon troop is foraging. He is shocked to discover that he has somehow been transformed into a baboon, or, perhaps, that his spirit has come to occupy a baboon’s body. After a terrifying encounter with a leopard, Gerry realizes that he needs to make a place for himself within the troop if he is going to survive. Drawing upon his recollections of his parents’ discussions about baboon behaviour, he learns to forage for food, stay alert for predators, and negotiate the intricacies of baboon social structure. He also attempts to communicate with his parents, who are trying to come to terms with the knowledge that their son, lying in a coma in a hospital in Kondoa, will very likely never regain consciousness.
David Jones has written a gripping story, one that sweeps the reader into life in a baboon troop on the African veldt. Gerry’s transformation into a baboon is entirely believable within the context of this story, and his wry internal conversations, both with himself and his gloomy friend, Milton, are both endearing and amusing. A strange and wonderful tale!
FernFolio Editor