A couple of cousins are obligated by family tradition to make a week paddle without adults in the Boundary Waters. A bear steals their food and because one is diabetic, they try to canoe back on the rivers instead of portaging. The results are bad.
I enjoyed this- it is very similar to Paulsen and Hobbs wilderness books. There are some mature themes so I would probably not recommend it to younger kids, but it is probably okay for older teens. Has some mature language, too.
Booklist Review: Books for Youth, Older Readers: /*Starred Review*/ Gr. 6-9. Alden Carter has written the ultimate YA survival novel, one that will immediately come to mind when a reader requests another book just like Gary Paulsen's Hatchet. Mark and his cousin Randy set off on their family's traditional male rite of passage, a 10-day canoe trip through the Minnesota lake country. Neither approaches the trip with enthusiasm. Mark, hardly the outdoor type, is leaving a girlfriend, and Randy is a diabetic who, Mark believes, uses his illness to avoid work. Yet both realize that in order to survive this experience, they'll need to work together; to enjoy it, get along. And, after a few initial skirmishes, they do begin to relish both the trip and each other's company as they canoe, camp, fish, and outsmart lake, terrain, and even a bear--that is, until the bear outsmarts them, felling a tree that protects the boys' food pack, which is Randy's lifeline. Carter does a masterful job of creating disquieting tension as the boys become more and more content--and adroit--with themselves and with their camping skills. Readers will know that it can't last. It doesn't, and the boys and readers alike are plunged into a terrifying race for survival. Next stop: movie rights! ((Reviewed January 1 & 15, 1996)) -- Frances Bradburn
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