White Water - Hardcover

Grade 4-7. Greg's parents divorced when he was very young, and he lives with his mother in San Francisco. His father lives 200 miles away with his second wife and son. Once a month, Greg and his Dad spend a Saturday together, alternating the choice of activity. Greg, a smart but fearful kid, is appalled when his father announces plans for a two-day, character-building, white-water rafting outing with both sons. Soon after the trip begins, when Greg has barely had time to learn the basics, his father is bitten by a rattlesnake, and the boys' real adventure begins. Realizing that they can't wait for help to come to them, the youngsters pull together and push forward on a course that will test their courage, ingenuity, and physical strength. Petersen creates and sustains sympathetic characters, and involves them in situations where their mettle can be truly tested. Readers will be quickly caught up in the action and carried along through the rapids and boulders to the very end. It is particularly pleasing to find an excellent adventure story written at a level that younger readers can handle, and that will keep older readers fully engaged.?Darcy Schild, Schwegler Elementary School, Lawrence, KS
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Though similar in concept to Marion Dane Bauer's Face to Face (1991), this pulse-pounding adventure features characters who are considerably more likable. When his father, whom he usually only sees once a month, proposes a white-water rafting trip, Greg is not keen on the idea of danger as fun. After surviving an earthquake, a holdup, and a shooting, he has become understandably timid; Petersen (Liars, 1992, etc.) presents Greg's fears as warranted and sensible, as are his father's concerns that Greg is becoming too fearful. When his father is bitten by a rattlesnake during the trip, Greg hauls him and his half-brother, James, out of the wilderness--against overwhelming obstacles--in time to get him to a doctor. The character development is acute and believable: Greg learns to be less fearful, while his father finds that timidity does not imply a lack of courage. The book is a thrill ride--as the complications mount and a grittily determined Greg ingeniously responds to them, readers will come to admire him as much as James does. (Fiction. 8-12) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.