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In a ripped-from-the-headlines story, nineteen-year-old Blair's passion for fighting fires lands her a spot with the Forest Service and sets her on a wilderness adventure that quickly turns catastrophic.
How far would you go to save yourself?
Blair Scott is in her second season as a wildland firefighter when the Forest Service puts out a call for an additional class of smokejumpers. She and her best friend Jason both apply, though neither expects to get in since they're only nineteen. But it's been a devastating fire season, and they are both accepted. But going to training camp is only the first step—everyone expects the teenage rookies will wash out in the first week. Blair has always been touchy about people telling her she isn't good enough, so she begins taking unnecessary risks to prove herself. It doesn't take long before everything spins out of control, leaving Blair struggling to cope.
A story of courage, self-knowledge, and ultimate triumph over the elements, Jumper is a dramatic wilderness adventure that explores what it takes to survive—in every sense of the word.
"Blair is a fierce and dynamic narrator, and Crowder's immersive prose, crisp dialogue, and haunting descriptions of devastating fires enlivens this pulse-pounding thriller. The author's experience working with Oregon's U.S. Forest Service adds authenticity to the worldbuilding, while informative interstitials educate on firefighting terms, tools, and procedures, as well as how fires start." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Blair's passion for firefighting and her willingness to endure its grueling, vividly described hazards while struggling to manage her condition enrich the narrative. She's a mesmerizing tour guide to the extraordinary challenges of battling hellish heat and blinding smoke in forested wilderness. Firefighting principles are tucked between chapters...Never less than riveting." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
This information about Jumper was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Melanie Crowder lives on the Colorado Front Range, where she is a writer and educator. She holds an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is the author of the middle grade novels Parched, A Nearer Moon, and the Lighthouse Keepers series and the young adult novels Audacity and An Uninterrupted View of the Sky.
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