RIPTIDE

Maya and Paige head to forbidding Ripper’s Cove to surf after a contentious encounter with bully Kai at the beach.

Despite Paige’s cautionary tales of surfing accidents, Maya allows her anger to pull the pair to the dangerous spot as a storm rolls in. Martin (The Field Trip, 2018, etc.) plainly presents another harbinger of danger with mentions of shark attacks, but the surfers paddle out to catch some coveted waves anyhow. When Paige and Maya sustain injuries and a shark foils the rescue plan, Maya needs to think quickly and find help in unlikely places. Accompanying titles in this series find friends in extreme sports predicaments with little to aid them. In Whiteout by Vanessa Lanang, Jessa and brother Pax navigate a remote trail on their snowboards, facing cliffs and an ominous storm. In Off Road by Raelyn Drake, trail biking friends Wyatt and Tanika must find their way out of the backcountry after a gnarly crash while fending off a mountain lion. On Edge, also by Drake, features climbers Trevor and Micah stranded in a canyon with a snakebite and broken arm, respectively. While there are few physical descriptions of most characters, a couple of the titles feature diversity: In On Edge, Micah has a Chinese surname, Trevor dances with another boy, and there is a reference to a lesbian couple; the siblings in Whiteout are Filipino. While formulaic and somewhat flat, the high-action, low-romance content in these accessible books could fill a collection gap.

Reluctant readers who like survival stories will go along for each adventure.