Boys, Bears, and a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots

Gr 9 Up—Jenna, a member of the Green Teen club, plans to spend the summer at home in New Jersey working on environmental campaigns with her best friend, Olivia. When her parents change the plans, she finds herself on a bus heading to the wilds of Canada to live with her godmother, Susie. She inadvertently makes a poor first impression when she meets Susie's stepdaughter, Fiona, and her friends Ethan, Grady, and Reeve by assuming that they will also be interested in environmental issues. Over the course of the summer, the teens become friends and, after a run-in with some of the local wildlife, Reeve becomes Jenna's love interest. Jenna learns the difference between her brand of environmentalism and that practiced by real outdoorsmen, particularly when Olivia, now an eco-warrior after her summer experiences, shows up unexpectedly. Stephanie Wolfe adequately voices most of the characters in Abby MacDonald's novel (Candlewick, 2010), although Olivia sounds more like a Valley Girl than a teen from the suburbs of New Jersey. She does capture Jenna's emotions, especially her angst, as the teen deals with what she believes is her parents' impending divorce and the on-again, off-again relationship with Reeve.—Ann Brownson, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston