RISING WATER

The author of White Water (1997) offers another tightly wound boat ride into hardship and danger. After days of heavy rain overwhelm the levies, three teenaged volunteers from a local animal center set out in a rowboat to check on a displaced elderly resident’s dog. Their errand of mercy turns into one of both human and animal rescue then takes a sudden dangerous turn when they surprise a pair of armed looters in the act of ransacking a hastily abandoned house. The tension Petersen sets up between shy, sharp-tongued Tracy and her classmate Kevin, a juvenile offender with a habit of saying or doing stupid things, then regretting them later, not only adds to the general suspense, but artfully turns into a bond as the two work together: escaping the looters, keeping their damaged boat afloat, rescuing Tracy’s captured older brother, then helping authorities nab the burglars. Filled with narrow squeaks, set against a vividly realized natural disaster and animated by some fizzy chemistry between the protagonists, this page-turner will keep readers on the edges of their seats from the get-go. (Fiction. 11-13)