The Skeleton Tree

by Iain Lawrence

Overview

Una barca affonda lungo le coste dell'Alaska. A bordo si trovano il dodicenne Chris con suo zio Jack e un ragazzo di nome Frank, che lo zio gli ha presentato due giorni prima. Solo i ragazzi riescono a salvarsi dal naufragio, scaraventati su una terra selvaggia e disabitata. Da subito, Frank si mostra ostile verso Chris. Ma i due sono costretti a sopportarsi, se vogliono sopravvivere in attesa dei soccorsi. Trascorrono i giorni pescando e rovistando fra i relitti della spiaggia. Quando scoprono una capanna nella foresta, capiscono che presenze misteriose hanno abitato quel tratto di costa prima di loro. Nel frattempo, Chris fa amicizia con un corvo curioso e intelligente, e preferisce la sua compagnia a quella, sempre pungente, di Frank. Ma la stagione fredda avanza. La migrazione dei salmoni sta per finire e con essa il cibo. Sopravvivere richiederà più della sola forza di volontà.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9788892208827
Publisher:	San Paolo Edizioni
Publication date:	10/01/2019
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	238
File size:	394 KB
Age Range:	12 Years
Language:	Italian

About the Author

Iain Lawrence grew up moving all over Canada with his family. He worked in logging, fishing, and even as a forest-fire fighter before studying journalism in Vancouver and working at newspapers for ten years. He is the author of fifteen books for young readers, including this one, and has received many accolades, including the Governor General’s Award and the California Young Reader Medal. He lives in the Gulf Islands with his companion, Kristin, and their dog and cat. He invites you to visit him online at iainlawrence.com.

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Excerpted from "The Skeleton Tree"
by .
Copyright © 2016 Iain Lawrence.
Excerpted by permission of Random House Children's Books.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

A Junior Library Guild Selection

A Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award Nominee
 
A Sheila Egoff Children’s Literature Prize Finalist

A Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Reader’s Choice Award Nominee

Praise for The Skeleton Tree:

“Unsettling and compelling, a gripping, evocative read.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Fans of Hatchet and Lord of the Flies will be drawn to this harrowing survival story from Lawrence (The Winter Pony), which offers psychological suspense and action in equal measure. The boys’ exploration of rugged territory and the mysterious “skeleton tree” with coffins in its branches neatly parallels their individual quests to make sense of recent losses and the lives they have left behind.” —Publishers Weekly

"An emotionally engaging and heart-pounding read." —The Horn Book Review 

“This is not a typical survival tale ... the focus is on the rocky and evolving relationship between the two boys. Though Frank is cruel and Chris is innocent, readers come to understand that each boy is much more than he appears.” —School Library Journal

More Praise for Iain Lawrence:

★ "From the evocative jacket painting of a moonlit shipwreck to the superb characterizations, hair-raising plot and authentic period details, Lawrence's fiction is first-rate." —Starred Review, Publishers Weekly 

“Fast-moving, mesmerizing, this is a tale in the grand tradition of Robert Louis Stevenson and Leon Garfield.”—The Horn Book Magazine on The Wreckers

From the Publisher

2015-09-21
Chris, 12, is thrilled to sail from Kodiak, Alaska, down to Vancouver, British Columbia, with Uncle Jack but surprised (and not thrilled) to discover Frank, a sullen teen, is coming, too; the boys' mutual antipathy grows even after they're shipwrecked on the wild Alaskan coast, where cooperation is a precondition for survival. Chris, a gentle, imaginative kid, is easily bullied by boastful, angry Frank, who is burdened by a secret. He belittles Chris and takes for himself the one bed in the derelict cabin that becomes their home. Frank's savvier about wilderness survival in theory but lacks Chris' stolid patience to put it in practice. There's a radio but no batteries. Carefully hoarded matches keep the fire going, but as winter approaches, the last spawning salmon are almost gone. They find boxes containing human skeletons suspended from a tree and stumble across an enormous brown bear. Thursday, the raven Chris befriends and names, comforts him, but Frank becomes jealous of both boy and bird. Reading an adventure novel they find in the cabin, sharing fears, and plotting next steps lead the boys to form a wary, tentative bond that's severely damaged when Thursday injures Frank. Lawrence doesn't make it easy on either boy. The immense forest; its wolves, ravens, bears; the night's shimmering aurora and myriad stars—all of these are majestic but not friendly. Against this vividly realized backdrop, the boys' connection is tested. However fragile, fractious, flawed, it's their lifeline. Unsettling and compelling, a gripping, evocative read. (author's note) (Adventure. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews