BLIND MOUNTAIN

Sam Flynn, 12, used to love to go “bushwhacking” with his Glasgow-born, physician father. However, since Sam discovered his talent for the guitar, he has eschewed the off-trail hiking and camping for playing rock with his bandmates. His father has given Sam no end of grief, even calling him a sissy and a baby. Forced on one such hike, Sam accidentally lets a pine branch snap back when his father is following too closely. Suddenly, his father can’t see, and Sam gets his wish to be in charge. He gets them past a starving cougar and safely down the mountain, surprising his father and himself. While keeping the characters simple and the plot relatively straightforward, Thomas manages to rev up the anxiety level to create an adventure sure to appeal to the intended audience and even more likely to be passed around from reader to reader. Just right for those not quite ready for Gary Paulsen. (Fiction. 9-12)