cover image The Winter Road

The Winter Road

Terry Hokenson, . . Front Street, $16.95 (175pp) ISBN 978-1-932425-45-1

In first novelist Hokenson's remarkable story of ingenuity and courage, 17-year-old Willa survives more than two weeks in the wintry wilderness of Ontario after crashlanding her uncle's plane. Willa may be a dreamer, independent and a little "weird," but she's had a pilot's license for three years, thanks to her uncle Jordy. In the wake of family grief over her bother Ray's tragic Ski-Doo accident six years earlier, Willa has been feeling unappreciated, especially given her emotionally unavailable father, and a mother who often travels for her work with isolated villages. Yet when it came to flying, "Ray's bravado became her courage." The morning that Jordy had planned to take the ski plane to pick up Willa's mother, the teen discovers Jordy passed out, and Willa decides to fly alone. When she stops to refuel, Willa learns of a front fast approaching, but forges ahead anyway, resulting in a crash landing near a frozen lake. The bulk of Willa's story languidly and vividly details her thoughts and actions as she sets about making her own snowshoes, fish traps, shovel, snow caves and toboggan for her survival—and her journey toward the winter road that will take her home. While this novel will remind readers of Gary Paulsen's Hatchet , it is a welcome survival tale with a young woman as the sympathetic, brave and resourceful protagonist. Ages 12-up. (May)