SNOWHOOK

Mother Nature battles a girl and her
motley crew of sled dogs to a draw in the frozen landscape of eastern Ontario.

Forecasts of a winter storm send
Hannah’s Army Reservist father to answer the call of duty, igniting a series of
poor choices and near misses for his teenage daughter. In a fit of pique over
spending school holidays at the family’s rural cabin, Hannah accidentally
breaks her mother’s supply of insulin ampoules. Accompanied by a guilty
conscience and four family dogs, Hannah sets out to save the day by dog sledding
to the nearest neighbor for help. Unfortunately, the first leg of her endeavor
ends with Hannah being greeted by a rifle-wielding woman having combat
flashbacks. Hannah escapes with her life and Peter, a recalcitrant teenage
passenger whose main contributions to the mission are sarcasm and his ability
to start a fire. Anything that could go wrong does, but Hannah keeps moving
forward in a learn-as-you-go adventure where only the two lead dogs have any
idea what they’re doing. Below zero temperatures do nothing to warm us to
either Hannah or Peter, whose snarly personalities wear as thin as the ice one
of the dogs falls through. Hannah’s mother is Korean and her father is white;
other characters follow a white default.

A winter adventure that should have
skipped a print version and gone straight to TV as an after-school special. (Fiction. 12-14)