Fire on the Wind

Crew (Nekomah Creek) sets a poignant coming-of-age story against the apocalyptic backdrop of the historic Tillamook Burn in Oregon. It's the searing August of 1933 and, along with everyone else at the Blue Star loggers' camp, 13-year-old Storie is alarmed when word comes of a forest fire some miles distant. Besides being worried about the fire, Storie is confused: Mama makes her trade her overalls for a dress and take a job in the camp cookhouse, yet her parents don't want her associating with the loggers; Mama wants her to continue her education and move to a proper town, while Daddy ridicules her for reading and can't understand why she isn't satisfied with her job. However, these concerns pale beside the overwhelming reality of the fire, which grows to a raging inferno and races toward Blue Star Camp. With the logging company management concerned only with saving their timber, it falls to Storie to stop her father and the other loggers from vainly battling the blaze and to get them onto the last train to safety. Some gentle romance and a revealing epilogue round out a gripping, well-researched story. Ages 12-up. (Oct.)