Review by Booklist Review
Eleven-year-old Cara and her family are given 10 minutes to pack their belongings and flee their Pine Grove home when a wildfire threatens their town. Unfortunately, Cara's beloved dog, Mike, is nowhere to be found, so the family must leave without him. Following an agonizingly slow caravan to a safe zone, the family finds refuge, but Cara remains fixated on locating Mike. As anyone living in the West can tell you, summer wildfires are becoming the new normal. Green's free verse novel fairly brims with gripping descriptions of both the fire and Cara's taut emotional state, allowing readers a front-row seat to the devastation and fear that the fire generates. Also woven into the story are Cara's ruminations of home, many of which appear as answers to the crossword puzzles Cara solves to distract herself from her new reality. The ending offers some closure (spoiler alert: the house is a complete loss; Mike is found alive), but many recovery-related problems still remain. A fast-paced, compelling, and timely read.--Kay Weisman Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-6-When wildfires threaten her small Canadian town of Pine Grove, almost 11-year-old Cara Donovan and her family must abruptly evacuate, leaving behind her beloved dog, Mike, who has run off in the turmoil. Devastated that she is abandoning her one-eyed, loyal companion, Cara vows to find Mike. Buoyed by the kindness of people at the evacuation city site, the Donovans spend nights with a host family, help sort food and clothing at the community center, get updates on the fires, and try to keep their spirits up. Cara befriends Jewel, a savvy foster kid, who helps her print posters about Mike, join a missing pets hotline, contact animal shelters, and even make a furtive but futile back roads attempt to find Mike in charred, off limits, Pine Grove. This novel-in-verse poignantly captures the harrowing impact of wildfires and the cascade of emotions that engulf Cara. She agonizes over Mike's fate, vacillates between hope and despair, and learns from the anxiety, grief, and resilience of others. Cara is an appealing, believable narrator whose story unfolds through succinct and vivid descriptions, interactions and vignettes with family and friends, and self-reflection. Her mix of fears, insecurities, optimism, and penchant for crossword puzzles will resonate. She discovers that home has many meanings. An appropriately realistic-but still happy and hopeful-ending brings a satisfying resolution. VERDICT Cara provides a dramatic and youthful eyewitness perspective on wildfires, evacuation operations, the kindness and generosity of strangers, and the traumatic uncertainty of loss. A timely addition to middle grade collections.-Gerry Larson, formerly at Durham School of the Arts, NC © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
When wildfires threaten their home, 11-year-old Cara and her family flee, unintentionally leaving Cara's dog, Mike, behind in this middle-grade novel in first-person, present-tense verse. When she was 9, Cara picked out Mike from the shelter, eschewing the adorable goldendoodle puppies and setting her heart instead on a one-eyed grown-up mutt despite her parents' misgivings. Green does a marvelous job of using backstory to deepen the commitment and love between dog and girlCara's insecurities about school, her older sister, and her need for the stability provided by her crossword-puzzle routine are all soothed by Mike's unflagging loyalty. But when wildfires rage close and the family has 10 minutes to leave, Mike goes missing. The skillful narrative turns white-knuckle tense as taut verse describes the family fleeing on a road clogged with cars and burning trees, while Cara desperately scans the roadside for Mike. Reaching safety, the family is hosted by the Bains, a brown-skinned couple with a white foster daughter, Jewel. (Cara and her family are implied white.) Jewel and Cara put a notice about Mike on the internet and notify shelters, but as the days tick by and Mike remains missing, Cara faces the wrenching possibility that he is gonejust as, as her family finds out, their house is gone and just as her best friend Heather, who is moving away, will soon be gone.Tense, heartwarming, and masterful. (Fiction. 8-11) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
