It's
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
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and #IMWAYR day
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Brorsen, Joslin. Wilderness HacksMarch 31, 2026 by Knopf Books for Young Readers
E ARC provided by Netgalley.
After the death of her father, Sadie tries to take especially good care of her younger brother Silas, who is on the autism spectrum and is also struggling with recently diagnosed celiac disease. He is a big fan of social media influencer Radley Shaw, a boy her age who posts wilderness and survival content. There's a contest to be featured on Radley's show, but Silas is too young. Sadie steps in, and has Silas film a video of her finding, cooking, and eating a grub. When Radley sees the video, he thinks that Sadie is smiling at an off camera boyfriend, since she has such a fond look on her face, and doesn't pick it. Radley's team (which includes tutor Juliana and her father, manager Marcus) thinks Sadie's forthright demeanor would mean a lot of likes, and include her in the voting. She wins, and she and Silas are soon traveling to meet Radley, so that they can introduce him to some of the joys of the Colorado wilderness. While Radley has reservations about Sadie, Sadie also isn't a fan of Radley, whom she thinks doesn't really know how to survive, but is in the business just to promote products. Sadie is struggling with being outside, since that was her father's favorite place to be. When Silas starts a fire with some off-camera help, Sadie's suspicions are confirmed. Still, Rad and Sadie take off with guide Chuck to get some footage on the rapids, but things go terribly wrong when there is an earthquake. This causes a local dam to overflow, and the flooding also leads to landslides. Chuck manages to keep everyone safe for a while, but eventually sacrifices himself in order to get Rad and Sadie to safety. They manage to get off the raft onto dry land, and climb as fast and as far as they can to get away from the water. They have to set up camp, dry off, and see if they can find any food. Sadie does have a backpack that Silas packed for her that includes a personal locator beacon (PLB), which gives them hope, and a Life Straw so that they can drink water. There are some issues with food; even though Sadie doesn't have celiac disease, she has the genetic markers, and because her father's death was tied to the same issue, she doesn't want to eat anything with gluten. Rad, on the other hand, is leery of most meats, and they manage to find a common ground to help them communicate in order to survive. There are plenty of challenges in the wilderness, and Rad is concerned that the PLB might not be helping; he had promoted it, and his father hadn't let him raise awareness when the device was proven to be problematic. Rad tries to protect Sadie from seeing a dead body, and the kids also come across an abandoned bike left because a mountain lion killed the rider. Luckily, by the time they are in a critical situation, Rad and Sadie are near help. Rad sets up a donation page to help the victims of the earthquake and posts a retraction about the PLB, and Sadie makes some peace about her father's death.
Strengths: Sure, we all think we could survive in the wilderness with a friend, but what about someone we just don't like? The friction between Sadie and Rad is completely believable, and I loved how long into their trek they still didn't get along! The survival details about good as well, and there is some good celiac disease and autism spectrum representation. Younger readers will be enthralled with Radley's social media empire, even though he doesn't really enjoy the fact that something he enjoyed has now become a job. This moved quickly, and the action scenes were interspersed with Radley and Sadie coming to terms with each other in an effective way. The ending was hopeful and upbeat, despite the devastation that the earthquake caused.
Weaknesses: This was my favorite read of December 2025, but there were a lot of survival fiction tropes that made it seem less than fresh. However, I've read hundreds of survival tales, and my students have not, so they will not notice. At least the children were attacked by a mountain lion and not a bear. The ending was a bit abrupt. For sensitive readers, there is an on page death that is not at all graphic, and also a dead body.
What I really think: Good survival tales are always popular with my students, and the fact that this blends some drama and the tiniest sprinkling of romance will assure that this is rarely left on the shelf. The Suzanne Lee cover is fantastic and bright! Hand this to readers who loved Teagan's Survivor Girl, Hashimoto's Off the Map, or Behrens' Alone in the Woods. Excuse me while I go hunt down a PLB and LifeStraw to keep with my survival pack that I feel like I should take even on my two mile suburban trek to work!
Floyd, Sara. Survivor Mountain
November 25, 2025 by Wild Ink Publishing
Dani is apprehensive about going on a school hiking trip with the Excellence in Leadership group, but she’s glad to be with her friend Gemma, Aunt Zoe (who is her history teacher), and the very cute Miles. She’s not as wild about having her younger sister Lily there, but since their older sister Rachel was killed in an accidental fall and their father has recently been injured in a robbery at the bank where he is a manager, she knows it’s important for Lily to have a change of scenery and to hang out with her. Dani often feels stressed, and tries to use the coping strategies that her therapist has recommended. Once the group gets to the start of the trail in the mountains, there is a brief tremor, but the teachers decide that it should be fine for the kids to do their hike. They are split into six groups of four, and Dani is in a group with Gemma, Miles, Miles’ friend A.J., and Lily, who doesn’t want to go with their aunt. The group makes good time, and even manages to traverse the difficult Devil’s Slide, which Miles and Dani plan to do a school project about. When there is another tremor, Gemma cuts her leg, and has some trouble walking. The group plans to meet a teacher at the summit, which is only a mile and a half away. The tremors have caused some difficulty on the path, and while the kids are trying to find a way around some obstacles, they come across two campers with a fire. They feel uneasy about Jackie and Rob, with good reason. Lily bungles into their tent and tells the others that they have guns and orange bags that look like they came from a bank. Rob doesn’t appreciate being found out, especially since there is a $50,000 reward for the capture of the two. Miles, Dani, and Lily are taken hostage, but AJ and Gemma are let go, with a warning not to tell their teachers too much. Lily pretends to have to go to the bathroom, and Miles and Dani escape, but Dani goes back to get her sister. Having seen an EpiPen in Rob’s things, Dani finds a way to put Rob in the path of some bees that she’s discovered near a cave where the group is sheltering. This turns out to be a good plan to disable Rob, but Dani doesn’t want to be responsible for his death and helps Jackie revive him. Luckily, at a critical juncture, the police and Dani’s father arrive to save the day. Back at school, Miles is in a play, and the group announces that they are using the reward money to donate a new stage to the school, named after Rachel. Dani and Miles share a sweet kiss after the performance.
Survival books are always popular with my students, and I love that there is an age appropriate romance added to the story. The cover reminds me a bit of the Boxcar Children illustrations, and led me to believe that this was more of an outdoor adventure survival story; what an interesting surprise that it was more of a kidnapping tale! There haven’t been as many of those lately, and readers who enjoyed kidnapping stories like Paulsen’s Captive! Or Kehret’s Abduction will be glad to read this, as will fans of Behrens’ Alone in the Woods or Brorsen’s March 2026 Wilderness Hacks (see above).
Because of the presence of the robbers (who have an intriguing tie to the girls), this story avoids some of the typical survival tropes. There’s no bear attack, no one falls into a river, and there’s not a lot of mention about having to find food or shelter because Rob and Jackie are well supplied.
There is a lot of discussion about Dani’s PTSD over Rachel’s death, and as the story unfolds, she does process some of her emotions about it, and makes peace with Lily, whom she had blamed a bit for the circumstances surrounding Rachel’s fall. An author’s note at the end talks about the importance of mental health issues, and gives some resources as well.
This did have one error– the phrase “hair die” is used when “hair dye” is meant, and since this is only available in paperback or e book, I won’t be buying it for my school library. While it was nice that the kids used the reward money for apprehending the bank robbers to donate a stage to the school in the sister’s memory, I’m never a fan of books about grieving, so I personally could have done without this story line. My readers would probably prefer more time spent on the romance. If you are looking for books to purchase in paperback and want to support a small press, this would be a good choice.
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