Weather through the initially chilly intra-familial relationships, tinny dialogue and unfamiliar-sounding names to learn how Willa Raedl, 17, survives her plane crash in a snowy wilderness. Willa is having a hard time in high school. Her brother recently died in a skiing accident and her family members are trying to cope. She decides she needs to get away for a while. Over the weekend, she is to copilot a small commuter plane piloted by her uncle, picking up Willa’s mother who works long shifts as a nurse in remote parts of the county. When Willa discovers her uncle fast asleep and drunk, she decides to take the plane herself. She’s successful for most of the way until something goes wrong with the plane and she crash lands in a snow-covered lake-bound wilderness. How Willa survives will immediately engage any young adult, male or female, especially those with a fondness for the great outdoors. Readers will cheer her on in all her spirited ingenuity and will to survive. Educators will appreciate the non-stereotypical teenage female character and could successfully pair this novel with Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet in a thematic unit on survival. (Fiction. 12-15)
