ALONE IN THE WOODS

The complexity of middle school friendships is explored against the backdrop of a gripping wilderness survival story.

Alejandra and Jocelyn—or Alex and Joss—have been best friends since kindergarten, forming the inseparable Team Alexelyn and spending glorious summer vacations together at Joss’ family cabin in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. The cabin trips are steeped in tradition, from doughnuts at Paul Bunyan’s Cook Shanty to the first lake jump of the summer. As the summer before eighth grade winds down, however, this year’s cabin trip feels different. There’s a new distance between Alex and Joss that neither girl wants to acknowledge, and Joss can’t figure out why her best friend feels like a complete stranger. A river tubing trip seems like a good time to reconnect, but when a series of mishaps leave Alex and Joss wandering lost in the woods, the girls are faced with challenges that will test their strength and ability to survive. Told from the alternating first-person points of view of each girl, the story examines the complicated evolution of childhood friendships and the limits of human endurance. Alex and her family are Latinx; all other characters are assumed White.

Fully developed characters and a brisk plot take readers along on a dangerous journey