Fourteen-year-old Rick Walker is up against a judge who has had enough and Rick is headed to a six month sentence at Blue Canyon Youth Detention Center. After doing four and a half months of his time, he finds out his name is on the cigarettes which means he is about to be beaten, possibly to death. If he wants to survive, Rick needs to run. His escape will lead him to the back of a truck and the truck will take him to canyonlands where he meets a scientist who is working with California condors. Rick's life is about to change in every way and that change will include having to face his own greatest fears.
256 pages 9780380729135 Ages 10-14
Keywords: action/adventure, nature, survival, scientist, fears, finding yourself, self reliance, 10 year old, 11 year old, 12 year old, 13 year old, 14 year old
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com
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Just fourteen, Rick Walder is alone, on the run, and desperate. Stowing away in the back of a truck, he suddenly finds himself at a dead end, out in the middle of nowhere. The Maze. In this surreal landscape of stark redrock spires and deep sandstone canyons, Rick stumbles into the remote camp of Lon Perigrino, a bird biologist who is realeasing fledgling California condors back into the wild. Intriqued by the endangered condors and the strange bearded man dedicated to saving them, Rick decides to stay on. When two men with a vicious dog drive up in a battered old Humvee, Rick discovers that Lon and his birds are in grave danger. Will he be able to save them? In a heart-stopping adventure infused with the spirit of the Icarus myth and a boy's dreams of flight, Will Hobbs brings readers a unique tale of identity, personal growth, and friendship.---from the publisher
