THE CRYSTAL DROP

When their mother dies in childbirth, teenaged Megan and her younger brother Ian flee their arid farm—ecological catastrophe has made Canada's Alberta a desert—and, lured by the promise of abundant water, head for the Rockies, braving an array of natural hazards and encountering only a few people (some kind, some not). Setting her story less than 20 years in the future, Hughes creates a barren, sun-blasted landscape marked by old barbed-wire fences and decrepit farmhouses, tumbleweed and hordes of grasshoppers. Unlike Ian, Megan remembers cars, school, and electricity; now, there's neither government nor even rudimentary communication with the outside world. Megan and Ian are strong, believable characters who come through many dangers and reach a haven at the end, but the author's bleak vision of the near future is more vivid than their adventures. (Fiction. 10-12)