Across the Desert

August 15, 2021
Twelve-year-old Jolene embarks on a desperate rescue mission after witnessing a life-threatening accident. Jolene's single mother has spiraled into opioid addiction following a car accident, plunging the family into poverty and making Jolene a target for school bullies. The budding cartographer dreams of exploring the world beyond Phoenix and passionately admires bold, pioneering women of the past. Using public library computers, she watches the Arizona wilderness adventures of a girl her age who goes by Addie Earhart. One day, Addie's ultralight crashes, and, as the only person viewing the livestream, Jolene knows she must seek help. After failing to convince any grown-ups (including her mom) to believe her story--and aware that undue attention could lead to a visit from Child Protective Services, landing her back in foster care--Jolene sneaks out equipped only with a backpack of meager, scrounged supplies; her mother's ancient cellphone; and her handmade map. While traveling by Greyhound she meets 17-year-old Marty, who has her own painful family secrets. The two develop an affectionately contentious relationship and ultimately risk their lives, traversing the harsh landscape in search of Addie. Bowling's portrait of this determined, guarded, bright spark of a girl is moving and tender. Supporting characters are less well fleshed out, but readers will appreciate the compassionate, unflinching representation of the impact of parental substance abuse. The desert rescue is no less gripping for requiring some suspension of disbelief. Characters default to White. A page-turner with heart. (author's note) (Fiction. 8-12)

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Starred review from September 27, 2021
In downtown Phoenix, Jolene, 12 and cued white, is watching her favorite livestream. Hosted by her virtual friend Addie Earhart, also white, who lives more than 100 miles away and with whom Jolene exchanges direct messages, the young explorer’s show helps Jolene escape from her own reality. A couple of years ago, Jolene and her mother were in a car accident that has left the latter with an Oxycodone addiction; the resulting home situation leaves Jolene isolated and hungry (“My life is so filled with If I hads that it sometimes feels like I’m drowning in them”). But then Jolene is the sole witness to Addie’s ultralight-trike crash. Capturing friendship history and mutual loss through the girls’ messages, Bowling (The Canyon’s Edge) immerses readers into Jolene’s small world, and how it slowly opens as she follows her own path, fighting against her own PTSD “car-crash feeling” and the discouragement of others, to rescue Addie and perhaps herself. Bowling’s passion for the desert and its inhabitants—as well as a personal understanding of children of adults with addictions—is clear and powerful in this tense, poignant story about the essential nature of friendship and life’s unexpected possibilities. Back matter features an author’s note. Ages 8–12.

Starred review from October 1, 2021

Gr 3-7-Twelve-year-old Jolene is used to taking care of herself. Ever since a car accident severely injured her mother and caused her slide into opioid addiction, Jolene is alternately upset with and fiercely protective of her, despite their descent into poverty and occasional homelessness. She takes refuge from the Phoenix heat in the library each day, where she reserves travel books, draws maps, researches remarkable female pioneers, and follows livestreamer Addie Earhart's aerial adventures. Addie is grieving the loss of her father and flying their ultralight plane alone in the desert without her mother's knowledge, and the lonely pair strike up a connection. When Addie crash lands and the impact cuts off the feed, Jolene can't get anyone to go search for her. She has a pretty good idea of where Addie might be, and, realizing she's the only one who knows about the accident, scrounges meager supplies and sets out by bus to find her. Luckily for Jolene, she meets 17-year-old Marty on her journey, and the two end up searching for Addie together. Jolene's voice is instantly compelling, making suspending disbelief at the unique and dangerous scenario quite easy. The tension ratchets up insidiously as the desert heat rises and time seems to keep running out. Alongside the budding friendships, the depiction of parental addiction is utterly realistic and heartbreaking. VERDICT The book's dedication, "For you, the child of an addict, I see you," says it all. A first purchase.-Brenda Kahn, Tenakill M.S., Closter, NJ

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2021
Grades 5-7 *Starred Review* Primed to earn the admiration of any preteen who has ever felt out of their depth, 12-year-old Jolene screws her courage to the sticking place and personally undertakes not one but two rescue missions. First, after failing to convince authorities that she saw, via webcam, an online friend (whom she knows only by a username) crash an ultralight plane deep in the Arizona desert, she sets out alone, armed only with her opioid-addicted mom's cell phone and credit card. Fortune favoring the clueless (as it sometimes does), in the Phoenix bus station, she runs into Marty, a teenager with multicolored hair and a big heart who doesn't really buy her story but agrees to join her quixotic enterprise. Neither is ready for the grueling trek that awaits. Nor, characteristically, does either have a plan should they actually succeed in their search. Though she salts her tale with inspirational references to Bessie Coleman, Robyn Davidson, and other adventurous women, Bowling gives her own scared but resolute protagonists plenty of adventure of their own, thanks to the desert's deadly heat, viciously inhospitable terrain, and miles of trackless wilderness. The experience leaves Jolene better equipped for a wrenching, teary confrontation with her mother. Readers will soar along with Jolene into the prospect of better days.

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