Review: When Children are Stranded
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 13, 2014
High in the Sierra Nevada Mountains forty-eight mostly reluctant adolescents attend a summer camp on sexual responsibility.  All goes well, until the adults disappear into a toxic fog, never to return.  The girls and boys are left, bewildered, without guidance or protection.  What will happen to them?  In a fight for survival, will they become savages, like the boys in Lord of Flies?  Or will they develop a community, like the wild rabbits in Watership Down?In this unique story, Kathy gives an eye-witness account, slanted toward what interests her most, carpentry and human relationships, skimping on subjects she finds less compelling, such as nature and animals.  Details of her interest run deep, to being instructive.  And we are awed by her realistic portrayal of relationships.  Through Kathy, the author pulls us into the multitude of personalities and adventures as the youngsters learn to handle dangers both inside and outside the camp.  The kids grow up fast.The story is so well written, one can forgive the several typos.  The story hooks us from the beginning and pulls us deeper with the telling.  I choked up over the funeral of a slain member.  I teared up when a girl told of her rape by lawless men outside the camp.  The characters are many, but somehow we keep them straight, and we care enough about them that we find even the mundane growth of community to be fascinating, just as we are mesmerized by the growth of a child into adulthood.  If you like coming of age and wilderness survival stories, you will find this book hard to put down.  I read past my bedtime.