WILDERNESS by Roddy Doyle

This story is two stories in one. While brothers Johnny and Tom are in the snowy wilderness of Lapland on a husky sledging holiday with their mother, Sandra, their half sister, Grainne, is at home battling her own demons. Her relationship with her stepmother is strained, she is having issues with her father and her real mother is flying back from New York to see her for the first time in thirteen years.

The boys become acquainted with sled dogs and head off into the wilderness on an exciting dog sled ride to a remote lodge. Here they are involved in a ski rescue which is both believable and dramatic. In alternate chapters we hear the story of a  nervous Grainne awaiting the arrival of her birth mother.

Young readers will be drawn into this exciting book and will relate to the realistic characters and their emotions as the author uses sparse, simple language which manages to keep the tension high and the storyline moving.

Glenn @ Camberwell

 

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