Marvelous Middle Grade Monday: Red Fox Road

Participating this week in the fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle. Check out his blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews. I've been discovering some great reads there.

Title: Red Fox Road

Author: 
Frances Greenslade
Publication Info: 
Puffin Canada, 2020. 238 pages (Kindle edition)
Source: Library


Publisher’s Blurb: 


A thirteen-year-old girl on a family vacation becomes stranded alone in the wilderness when the family's GPS leads them astray. A compelling survival story for ages 10 to 14, for fans of Hatchet and The Skeleton Tree .

Francie and her parents are on a spring road trip, driving from British Columbia, Canada, to hike in the Grand Canyon. When a shortcut leads them down an old logging road, disaster strikes. Their truck hits a rock and wipes out the oil pan. They are stuck in the middle of nowhere. Francie can't help feeling a little excited -- she'd often imagined how she'd survive if she got stranded in the bush, and now here they are. But will her survival skills -- building fires, gathering dandelion leaves and fir needles for tea -- be enough when hours stretch into days?

My Review: 


I'm not sure how I feel about this one. The idea--basically, a more realistic Hatchet with a female protagonist--gave me a lot of hope. But something about the story or the writing just didn't quite work for me. Maybe it was the feeling of doom hanging over it (we all know how these stranded-on-a-dirt-road stories end in real life). Maybe it was the backstory about Francie's family, which at times felt gratuitously painful. I didn't dislike it, but it didn't make me excited to read more, though at some point I found I had to read on and learn how Francie gets out of this situation.

The writing is solid, if not sparkling, and the premise is a good cautionary tale--GPS and Google Maps are not all-knowing, and in fact screw up a lot on back roads. People die because they put more faith in their electronics than their common sense. The setting is a little vague; I think it's meant to be eastern Oregon, but the landscape isn't quite right in some ways. I might also be somewhat frustrated as well by these people heading off to hike the Grand Canyon with evidently little clue about backpacking--which is sadly also realistic, but bugs the heck out of this backpacker.

It's an interesting entry for my (tongue-in-cheek) study of how to get rid of parents in middle grade books, so the kids can be self-reliant. It's often essential for the stories, and fun to track the ways it's done.

My Recommendation: 

 


I think kids in the age range--9-12ish--may enjoy this more than I did. It does include a presumed loss/death of parents and mental health issues, mostly unresolved at the end (or left unstated), which may be disturbing to some kids, while others will be more saddened by Francie's relationship with her mother.

 

FTC Disclosure: I checked Red Fox Road out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."  


 

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2024
 As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated. 


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