Lost in the Backyard
by Alison Hughes
Orca Book Publishers, 2015
ISBN 9781459807952
$9.95,144 pp, ages 9 – 12
orcabook.com
This story mostly takes place in the forest behind Joe and Ellen’s house (some of Flynn’s family friends). Flynn detests the outdoors. If it were up to him, his family would never go camping or even step foot in the forest. The last time Flynn went camping with his family, he stayed inside their tent and watched almost every YouTube video available. But, one day while he and his parents are visiting at a friend’s house, Flynn decides to take a short walk in the forest where he falls into a deep ravine and gets hopelessly lost in the wilderness. His only supplies are half a stick of gum, a little bit of snow and some distasteful green lichen. The below freezing temperatures and the numerous hungry animals are just some of the many challenges he will have to face. Lost in the Backyard reminds me of most of my friends because the main character, Flynn, is very attached to his phone and spends most of the day either on his phone or on the computer playing video games. This is an activity that many of my friends do for most of the day. Something that I liked about this book is how captivating the story was. I found that I couldn’t put it down for a second without wondering what would happen next. In a month or two I will certainly be reading this book again.
Review by Anya, age 13, grade 8.
This review is from Canadian Teacher Magazine’s Sept/Oct 2015 issue.
