EMBER

When the wildfire crowns the ridge, eleven-year-old Cal Walker has fourteen seconds to decide which canyon to run down - and his father is on the other side of the smoke.

It was supposed to be a day hike. Switzer Falls, the Gabrielino Trail, the dry brown country above Los Angeles his father had walked him through since he was four. Red Flag warning out. Phones dead by lunch. By two o'clock the wind has shifted, and the canyon Cal came up is the canyon the fire is coming down.

What Cal carries: a knife his father gave him on his ninth birthday. A brass compass that belonged to his grandfather. A water bottle that won't last the afternoon. And Boomer, the German shepherd who will not leave him.

What Cal doesn't carry: any clean way out of the next five days.

Over five days in the Angeles National Forest, Cal will find water in dry country where every wrong turn costs him more than he has, treat a wound he was never supposed to treat, and learn the difference between the boy his father is hiking with at sunrise and the boy who has to come down the mountain alone by Wednesday afternoon.

In the tradition of Hatchet and Holes, EMBER is a wilderness survival adventure for readers 9-12 - about a boy who learns that being responsible for somebody else is not the same thing as being brave, and harder.

Perfect for readers who loved:
• Gary Paulsen's Hatchet
• Will Hobbs's Far North
• Roland Smith's adventure novels
• Books where the dog matters as much as the kid

A clean read. No magic, no romance, no profanity, no on-page graphic injury. A book parents can hand to their fourth grader without reading it first.