Downriver

Description

Will Hobbs’s classic tale of whitewater adventure is back in print with an exciting new look.

No adults, no permit, no river map. After fifteen-year-old Jessie gets sent to Discovery Unlimited, an outdoor education program, she and six companions “borrow” the company’s rafting gear and take off down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon on their own. Floating beneath sheer red walls, camping on white sand beaches, and exploring caves and waterfalls, Jessie and the others are having the time of their lives—at first. But when they’re pursued by helicopters, they boldly push on into the black-walled inner gorge, the heart of the Grand Canyon, only to encounter huge rapids, bone-chilling rain, injuries, and conflict within the group. What will be the consequences of their reckless adventure?

     This riveting novel includes an author’s note about his own rafting experiences and has been ranked by the American Library Association as a “100 Best of the Best” for twenty-five years—a testament to the enduring popularity of the action and adventure that await in Downriver.

---

Go Big or Go Home

Description

A meteorite is hurtling toward the Black Hills of South Dakota. . . .

Brady Steele's love for all things extreme is given a boost when a fireball crashes through the roof of his house. It turns out that Brady's space rock is one of the rarest meteorites ever found. In fact, a professor from a nearby museum wants to study it in search of extraterrestrial bacteria, hoping to discover the first proof of life beyond Earth.

During a wild week of extreme bicycling, fishing, and caving, Brady discovers he's able to do strange and wonderful feats that shouldn't be possible. At the same time, he's developing some frightening symptoms. Could he be infected with long-dormant microbes from space? Is his meteorite a prize . . . or a menace?

---

Crossing the Wire

Description

When falling crop prices threaten his family with starvation, fifteen-year-old Victor Flores heads north in an attempt to "cross the wire" from Mexico into the United States so he can find work and send money home. But with no coyote money to pay the smugglers who sneak illegal workers across the border, Victor must struggle to survive as he jumps trains, stows away on trucks, and hikes grueling miles through the Arizona desert.

Victor's journey is fraught with danger, freezing cold, scorching heat, hunger, and dead ends. It's a gauntlet run by millions attempting to cross the border. Through Victor's often desperate struggle, Will Hobbs brings to life one of the great human dramas of our time.

---

River Thunder

Description

Jessie, Troy, and the rest of the crew from Downriver have returned to the Grand Canyon for adventure down the Colorado River. In the year since they last were together, each has changed; each feels more mature. But how will they interact now that they are facing new challenges--challenges greater than anything they've had to deal with at home?

For Troy, it is a chance to prove he can be a team player, someone worthy of friendship and love. For Jessie, the river is the ultimate test. Does she have what it takes to row down the mighty Colorado? The only way to find out is to get into the raft and set off to face the thundering rapids and the powerful emotions that the river unleashes.

---

Take Me to the River

Description

Deep in trouble, deep in the canyons

Fourteen-year-old Dylan Sands has come all the way to the Big Bend on the Texas-Mexico border to paddle the fabled Rio Grande with his cousin Rio. As the boys are packing their raft and canoe for ten days in the canyons, six Black Hawk helicopters appear overhead and race across the river into Mexico. The Army warns them that a hurricane is approaching the coast.

Convincing themselves that their chances of running into a storm are slim, Dylan and Rio launch onto the wildest and most remote waters in the Southwest. Downriver, a man appears with a seven-year-old boy, begging for help . . . and the storm is upon them. Danger, suspense, and the ever-looming troubles in Mexico drive this white-knuckle adventure forward at a breakneck pace.

---

Jason's Gold

Description

"Gold!" Jason shouted at the top of his lungs. "Read all about it! Gold discovered in Alaska!"

Within hours of hearing the thrilling news, fifteen-year-old Jason Hawthorn jumps a train for Seattle, stow away on a ship bound for the goldfields, and joins thousands of fellow prospectors attempting the difficult journey to the Klondike. The Dead Horse Trail, the infamous Chilkott Pass, and a five-hundred-mile trip by canoe down the Yukon River lie ahead. With help from a young writer named Jack London, Jason and his dog face moose, bears, and the terrors of a subartic winter in this bone-chilling survival story.

00-01 Tayshas High School Reading List, 01-02 Young Hoosier Book Award Masterlist (Gr 4-6), 01-02 Young Hoosier Book Award Masterlist (Gr 6-8), 01-02 William Allen White Children's Book Award Masterlist, and 01 Heartland Award for Excellence in YA Lit Finalist

Notable Children's Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies 2000, National Council for SS & Child. Book Council, 2000 Best Books for Young Adults (ALA), and 2000 Quick Picks for Young Adults (Recomm. Books for Reluctant Young Readers)

---