Red Fox Road

 Francie is excited about her family's spring adventure.  They are going to drive from Canada to the Grand Canyon and then hike through the canyon on their own.  It's the perfect adventure for Francie to test out her survival skills.  They planned to take the scenic route down, but when their GPS leads them down an abandoned road, their truck breaks down leaving them stranded on what looks much more like a trail than a road.

The GPS shows the main road about 12 miles ahead, and Francie's dad sets out using the GPS and his greatest talent, walking from all his years delivering mail on foot.  He promises to return by the end of the day, but he doesn't.  Francie and her mom start to get anxious.  They have no means of communication and very little food since they had planned to stop for supplies closer to their destination.  Francie knows which plants are edible, but spring in Oregon is still close to winter and their options are limited.  

Then her mother's behavior begins to change.  Francie has seen this before.  It's happened twice since her twin sister died, but it just makes things worse.  How can she keep calm when her mother's paranoia begins to creep in?

When Francie awakes to find her mother gone one morning, she is terrified.  Her mom left a note telling her to wait, but Francie knows her mother was not thinking clearly before she left.  Can her mother survive alone in the wilderness?  Can Francie?  This will be the ultimate test of her survival skills and of her will to live.  

Frances Greenslade's story of survival is perfect for fans of Hatchet and other survival stories.  Greenslade really knows how to create tension and anxiety as Francie struggles to manage the wintery environment and her unpredictable mother.  Flashbacks reveal the backstory of Francie's twin Phoebe and her difficult relationship with her mother.  The author never says the mom is smoking marijuana (she refers to it as mom's special cigarettes), but it's pretty obvious.  I don't know if this would be terrifying for kids like it for adults.  But reading about a girl stranded alone with her mentally unstable mother who is self-medicating with marijuana is pretty terrifying!  This one definitely kept me on the edge of my seat.  I do wish there had been some kind of resolution about the dad's fate.  The author definitely leaves you hanging there.  Will there be a sequel to explain the aftermath of all this?  I hope so!  Recommended.