TWO DEGRESS

TWO DEGREES by Alan Gratz

I was reading this book at just the right time. Sitting outside, cooking in 90 degree weather a couple weeks ago (that's hot for us Ohioans), gave me a slight feeling of the forest fire I was reading about.

Two Degrees is a different type of Alan Gratz book. This one focuses on climate change instead of a historical atrocity. You follow three stories.

The book opens with a girl, Akira, and her father out on a horseback ride in the woods of California. They are aware that there is a wildfire a little ways away but feel that it would never reach them. They are in for the scariest surprise of their lives when the wildfire does catch up to them, and they are surrounded by the blaze.

The second story follows two best friends, Owen and George. They live in far north Canada where polar bears make their home. They are set to spend a weekend away together at an ice fishing cabin. The trip turns into a race for survival when they encounter a polar bear.

The third story tracks Natalie who lives in Miami, Florida. Miami is encountering a hurricane that is destroying homes left and right and claiming lives in its wake.

Gratz is a master storyteller. He leaves you hooked with each switching of the story to one of the other kids and their disaster. However...

HEADS UP- If you are someone who believes that the earth goes through cycles versus climate change, this book scoffs at you. I think one of my biggest objections is how the kids have things figured out, and the adults look stupid because they don't believe in climate change. There is loss of life. Cars are left behind with people burned to death in the forest fire, drownings happen in the flooding. There are no details of the happenings, but people are found deceased and not in good condition. The last thing I want to mention is some crass humor. The book goes through spurts of situations where the boys call each other "ice holes" and other similar types of verbage.