Smokescreen

November 1, 2013

Gr 9 Up-Seventeen-year-old Kerry is an injured competitive dancer who must take a break from performing. Coerced by her mother into accepting a summer job with the Canadian Department of Forestry and Parks, she expects to be working in an office. Instead she is given an outdoors assignment and partnered with 19-year-old Yvette, who has worked in the bush in northern Ontario. When a horrific fire breaks out, the two girls are enlisted to be cooks for 300 firefighters. They are the only females in a camp with grown men. Because Kerry fluctuates between having difficulty handling the rough working conditions and showing strength as she tries to clear Yvette as the arsonist, the story doesn't ring true. (Kerry's romantic interest is also a suspect.) Another story line involves illegal bear hunting. There is not enough setup and too few clues to allow readers to want to solve the crime along with Kerry, and ultimately the story is tied up neatly; but by then, who cares. Hartry may have had a good premise, but she fails to provide any sense of adventure and intrigue.-Elizabeth Kahn, Patrick F. Taylor Science & Technology Academy, Jefferson, LA

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