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Nominated for the 2019 Red Maple Fiction Award
When Tristan’s dad disappears, he puts his tracking skills to the test to find him — but will Tristan’s talents save him if it turns out to be a trap?
Thanks to his dad’s coaching, sixteen-year-old Tristan is one of the best climbers and trackers in his small town. He can read footprints and bushes like they’re security-camera footage, and fearlessly descend rock faces and waterfalls. But when his father disappears, leaving his mother too grief-stricken to function, the young canyoneer’s life goes into freefall.
Left in the hands of a well-meaning but incompetent uncle and a space-cadet housekeeper, Tristan finds life a struggle no matter how hard he works. When he nears the end of his rope at home, the teen decides to set off into Swallow Canyon in search of his father — only to realize that someone may be out to get him. Now the question is who’s stalking whom, and are Tristan’s skills up to the dangerous game playing out in the deep, shadowy canyon?
Tracker's Canyon is a story about truth, friendship, family and resilience. A good read.
Clues and revelations are well-plotted and the setting, cinematic. Descriptions of the extreme sport of canyoneering, a combination of rock climbing, cliff diving, and caving, are thrilling.
A great choice for filling the dearth of realistic adventure novels for the middle-school crowd, and a solid mystery.
Middle and high school students will appreciate this fast-paced adventure tale for the action alone.
An important message is conveyed to a young reader who is given a good sense of the profound relationship between a son and his father.
I had difficulty putting the book down. It is a story about what is true, how families work, friendship and courage in the face of danger. Worth the read!
Pam Withers is an award-winning author of over twenty young adult novels, including Red Maple nominees Tracker’s Canyon and Stowaway, and two non-fiction books. She lives in Vancouver.
