The Skeleton Tree
by Iain Lawrence
Intermediate, Middle School   Delacorte   281 pp.
1/16   978-0-385-73378-6   $16.99
Library ed. 978-0-385-90395-0   $19.99   g
e-book ed. 978-0-307-97489-1   $10.99

Chris’s uncle Jack is a “daredevil” who “can’t be happy unless he’s facing danger.” Nevertheless, Chris’s mother allows the boy to go with Jack and another boy, Frank, on a sailing trip down the Alaskan coastline. Sure enough, the boat sinks, Uncle Jack with it, and the boys are left to survive in a rugged world, facing grizzly bears, wolves, and their own prickly relationship. The setting is rooted in the author’s own experiences of living and traveling along the coastline of southern Alaska and northern British Columbia. As always, Lawrence’s muscular prose (The Wreckers, rev. 7/98; The Convicts, rev. 3/05) is a pleasure to read for the sheer enjoyment of active verbs and lively similes (“the door sagged like a broken arm, swinging in the wind as though trying to close itself”). There are nods to Defoe throughout: Chris befriends a raven he names Thursday and later says, “I was Robinson Crusoe, the castaway boy.” Close to the end, a bear attacks, a surprising connection between the boys is revealed, and a “skeleton tree” ends up offering salvation. An emotionally engaging and heart-pounding read.

From the January/February 2016 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.