boys,bears, and a serious pair of hiking boots

boys,bears, and a serious pair of hiking boots

By Abby McDonald

2010

293 Pages

From Inside Cover:

Seventeen year old Jenna may hail from the 'burbs of New Jersey, but environmental activism is her life. So when the opportunity arises to spend the summer in the wilds of Canada with her hippie godmother, Susie, this Green Teen jumps at the chance to explore this nature she's heard so much about-and the cute, plaid-wearing boys she's certain roam wild and free. But after a few unpleasant run-ins with local wildlife(from a larger-than-life moose to Susie's sullen Goth stepdaughter to a hot but hostile boy named Reeve), Jenna realizes that her long-held ideals, like vegetarianism and conservation, don't play so well with this population of real outdoorsmen. With the help of a dusty survival guide, Jenna begins to navigate the wilderness, and those who call it home-but can she learn to navigate the surprising turns of her heart?

My thoughts:

When I read the first chapter I was a little worried that Jenna would be an eco-terrorist and the whole book would be about Green Teen saving some back woods town from itself. Well I am happy to say that there was so much more to this book and Jenna then that.

Jenna and her best friend Olivia have their hearts set on spending the summer taking up environmental issues with Earth Now as interns. Then Jenna learns that her dad has accepted a job overseas and her mom wants them both to live with her grandmother in Florida for the summer.

In a desperate move Jenna decides at the last minute to take a trip to Canada to see her godmother Susie who is newly married and in the middle of opening a bed and breakfast.

She is not at all prepared for the wild outdoors, Susie's moody step daughter or the complicated lives of three cute boys she meets.

One of my favorite parts of the book is when Jenna discovers a old survival guide in a box and uses the tips in it for the people situations that she encounters throughout the story. Such as the moody room mate Fiona and the mysterious boys that are cold one minute and hot the next.

I enjoyed Jenna's journey as she discovered being adventurous and trying new things can lead to finding out some pretty important things about yourself.

It was great to watch Jenna grow through the book And by the end we are sure that she is finally ready to deal with whatever her parents are going to be putting on her in an not so distant future.

I really liked this book. It wasn't at all what I was thinking it would be. It ended up having so many more dimensions then I thought were possible. The characters were real, I liked them sometimes and other times a few of them got on my nerves. But that's what good writing does!

I received this book from the awesome people at Candlewick Press. Thank you so much. I plan to give this book away at our Summer Reading Program next month.