Survivor Diaries 2 – Avalanche!

Terry Lynn Johnson's Avalanche is a gripping survival story for 9 year olds about a twin who has always been in her brother's shadow.

What happens

Ashley and her twin brother Ryan are twelve and on a ski trip in the mountains of Wyoming. Ryan is better than Ashley at nearly everything (and he was born six minutes first, which he never lets her forget). Their dad keeps telling her to keep up.

So when Ryan wants to leave the trail to look for a wolverine, Ashley goes too. They leave their parents behind. Then the snow gives a horrible "whump" underneath them.

The avalanche itself is terrifying and very well told. Ashley is swept down the mountain and buried, and digs her way out. Then she spots Ryan's ski pole sticking out of the snow. She has to dig him out as fast as she can, with a hurt knee and no idea how long he's been under.

And when she does? He looks at her and asks who she is.

That's the heart of it. The brother Ashley has always leaned on can't remember her, and suddenly she's the one making every decision. How do you keep warm when you're wet through? How do you light a fire on top of snow? Is it safer to stay put or to move?

The survival detail is brilliant and very practical. Slow counted breaths when you're buried. Crossing risky slopes one at a time. Switching on your avalanche beacon (which the twins forgot to do). Your reader will probably finish it knowing more about snow than most grown-ups!

The story is told by Ashley to a reporter afterwards, so you know from the first page that she made it home. That takes the edge off a bit for a worrier. It's still tense, though. There's a head injury, a bleeding hand and a moment when Ashley thinks her snow hole nearly became her grave.

If you've got a child who's ever been compared to a brother or sister, they'll be rooting for Ashley all the way.

What to read next

If they're after another survival story told the same way, try the first Survivor Diaries book, Overboard!