New Releases by Pam Withers

FINALIST -MYRCA Awards, 2025 SELECTION - Best Books for Kids and Teens, 2025 "Guaranteed to hook teen readers ... Pam Withers has crafted such a thrilling yet utterly believable text that this reader stopped at several points to Google details, not believing it was fiction ... It's a gripping story that makes tough choices relatable, difficult concepts understandable, and adventure unforgettable." — Canadian Teacher Magazine Hudson Greer and his caving partner, Jett, are determined to become teen legends who discover a long-sought passageway that connects two giant cave systems in their little mountain town. But they're haunted by the history of a giant sinkhole that opened up and swallowed the town's fully-packed church, steeple and all. Dozens were killed, including Hudson's grandfather. Hudson knows it's in danger of happening again; he just doesn't know when or where. Can his caving instincts and science knowledge predict or prevent the next disaster? Are the shoddy logging practices of the town's main employer tempting fate? And who's on whose side when business and political shenanigans mix with evaded environmental codes?

Will their wilderness skills be enough to survive the dangerous Rocky Mountains? First a Canadian Rockies avalanche kills their parents. Then Children’s Services threatens to separate them. That’s when the three Gunnarsson kids decide to run away into the mountains and fend for themselves until the oldest turns eighteen and becomes their legal guardian. Not many would dare. But Jon, Korka, and Aron’s parents ran a survival school. Turns out their plan is full of holes. When food and equipment go missing and illness and injury strike, things get scary. They’re even less prepared for encounters with dangerous animals and a sketchy woods dweller. On top of that, grief, cold, hunger, and sibling infighting threaten to tear them apart, while the search parties are closing in on them. Do Jon, Korka, and Aron really have what it takes to survive?

Ray will need every ounce of his drone skills and outdoor smarts to recover his missing bear cub before poachers get to it first. When his orphan bear cub goes missing, sixteen-year-old drone enthusiast Ray McLellan decides to use his airborne spying skills to find it. Little does he know that an evil bear-poaching gang operating in the surrounding forest has drones, too — and a cold welcome for those who would attempt to take them down. As a New York City kid recently forced to move to the Great Bear Rainforest by his parents, Ray doesn’t have a lifetime of outdoor instincts or familiarity with the valley and its wildlife. That makes him very different from his grumpy grandfather, who — like his new school friends — berates his city-kid uselessness at every opportunity. Can Ray use his drones and smarts to prove himself, find his cub, and expose what’s going on in the woods?

Owen sneaks aboard a strange yacht for an adventure, only to find himself in the middle of a people-smuggling operation. Can he commandeer the boat and save himself and the others onboard?

Tristan is one of the best climbers and trackers around. So when his father disappears, the teen decides to enter Swallow Canyon to search for traces of his dad — only to realize that someone is out to get him. Who’s stalking whom, and are his skills up to nasty games being played out in the deep, shadowy ravines?

Thirteen-year-old Chris and his family are setting up a bungee jump in his backyard. It's a real large-scale bungee jump off a bridge that connects his backyard to a small island owned by his family. Not only is it going to be the coolest attraction around, but it also provides Chris with an opportunity to watch a real engineer in action. Chris would be excited about it if things didn't keep going wrong. The rumors of hauntings on the island, once the site of a hospital for children with leprosy, are getting out of control. And there are mysterious mishaps on the bridge. Chris worries that all of these problems will keep customers away. And if the bungee jump isn't a success, his family will lose everything. This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading level book for middle-grade readers who are building reading skills, want a quick read or say they don’t like to read!

Just as sixteen-year-old Andreo, skilled in death-defying ironman events in wilderness regions, is about to compete in rugged Bolivia, he and his friend Raul (another Bolivian adoptee) begin to suspect that their adoptive parents have unwittingly acquired them illegally. Plotting to use the upcoming race to pursue the truth, they veer on an epic journey to locate Andreo's birth parents, only to find themselves hazardously entangled with a gang of baby traffickers. Never suspecting that attempting to bring down the ring would endanger their very lives, the boys plunge ahead. Compelling, poignant, and heart-stopping, Andreo's Race takes readers on a perilous quest to discover the true meaning of family.

Everyone knows that boys are falling behind in education. Largely left out of the discussion are parents of boys, who are most aware that their bright, eager sons hit an invisible wall somewhere near fourth grade, after which they become disengaged, discouraged, and disaffected. There are dozens of books on underachieving boys, but most parents brave enough to lift one off the shelf are instantly intimidated by the footnotes, graphs, case studies, and academic-speak addressed almost entirely to educators. What about the average guilt-ridden, frustrated mother or father of an underachieving boy? Jump-Starting Boys is the first book on the market that empowers parents, helping them reclaim the duties and rewards of raising their children and navigate the influences of school and media. Filled with reassurance and support, the authors turn fear and guilt into can-do confidence. Through easy tips and action list sidebars, this is the most practical, readable book on the topic.

Montana-born Rex loves nothing more than to take his kayak out on a river, the faster and more powerful the better. When he gets the opportunity to tackle the well-named El Furioso in southwest Colombia, he is thrilled. He anticipates the river’s challenges, but finds himself in a situation where the real danger is human. In Colombia, he meets Myriam Calambás, an indígena, who has lived along the El Furioso all her life. Though she loves its rushing waters, she dreams of leaving to get an education so that she can help her people. Her dreams, and her very survival, are in the balance when she and Rex are caught up in the clash between paramilitaries, working for rich landowners, and guerillas, who are supposed to be protecting the poor. Pam Withers’ skill at writing about extreme adventures combines with a compelling story about an endangered world and a people struggling for their very right to exist.

Peter, Jake, and Moses, on a snowboarding trip in the backcountry, witness a helicopter crash, and as they try to rescue the survivors they are caught in an avalanche.

Jake and Peter's latest adventure finds them working as wake board instructors in a remote, and tension-ridden, community. The series author is an experienced journalist and outdoor enthusiast well able to keep readers on the edge of their seats.

Kip's only friends are the members of the Daredevil Club, a club whose mission is to complete seven dangerous dares before their rivals, the Wildmen, complete their list of dares. Before the cliff-diving accident in which he lost the use of his leg, Kip had been the leader of the Daredevil Club. Now he has difficulty completing the dares and suspects that his membership is threatened. As the daredevils plan their final stunt, a dangerous climb along a narrow steel shelf beneath a bridge, they try to convince Kip that he may not be up to the task. Kip refuses to back down even though he suspects his friends might be right. This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading level book for middle-grade readers who are building reading skills, want a quick read or say they don’t like to read! The epub edition of this title is fully accessible. Available in French as Les Casse-Cous.

A series of accidents on the racing track and a natural disaster make Peter and Jake realize that they do not really understand how to use their dirt bikes.

This time, when Jake and Peter stumble upon adrenaline-pumping adventure, it's high in the peaks of the Bugaboo Mountains just west of the Rockies. Fifteen-year-old Jake is obsessed with solo-climbing a soaring granite spire. His best friend, Peter, is as absorbed with filming Jake for a video as he is in not divulging his secret fear of heights to the runaway girl who joins them. Though a talented climber, the surly runaway girl seems possessed by a death wish. When Jake arrives at the halfway mark and cheerfully hangs his overnight cot on anchors at a death-defying 150-storey height above the ground, all seems well, but the next day, a lightning storm begins to unravel this carefully planned high-risk adventure. When a crisis prompts the girl to put her life at stake for Jake, it falls to Peter to overcome his fear to get everyone home safely. Packed with mountaineering lore and cliff-hanging tension, Vertical Limits features adventures in competitive gym climbing, outdoor urban climbing, and wilderness rock climbing.

Beverly is in Hawaii, helping her uncle at his dive shop, learning how to dive and trying to lose weight and get a boyfriend. When Garth, an accomplished diver, shows an interest in her, Beverly is ecstatic, until it turns out Garth is only interested in one thing. Struggling with failing strength from her self-imposed starvation diet, Beverly finds herself in deep trouble when she has to fight Garth off underwater. This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading level book for teen readers who are building reading skills, want a quick read or say they don’t like to read! Available in Spanish as Respira.

Wilf is convinced his parents want nothing to do with him. When he isn't in school, he is left to his own devices or shipped away to camp. But at fifteen, Wilf is adamant that he is too old for summer camp. When his parents ignore his protests and ship him off anyway, he knows how he will get their attention: He will escape from camp by canoe and spend the rest of his vacation alone in the woods, proving to his parents he deserves his independence. His plan begins to unravel when his cabin mate forces Wilf to take him along. Things go from bad to worse when a younger camper follows them and they all end up in a fight for their lives against the unforgiving river. This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading level book for middle-grade readers who are building reading skills, want a quick read or say they don’t like to read! The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.

Jake and Peter find extreme adventure once again, after a scuba-diving accident leaves them and a surfer girl stranded on a deserted island with surfboards as their only means of escape. The storm of the century is fast approaching and the boys need to think fast if they're going to get home in one piece.Surf Zone is Jake and Peter's most action-packed and thrilling adventure yet. This adrenalin-pumping book is sure to keep readers on the edge of their seats.Praise for Pam Withers: Pam's books have wide appeal to boys and girls, to avid and reluctant readers, to teens and to younger children who are looking for a challenging high-interest book. The Bookmark

Jake and Peter land dream jobs as skateboarding stuntboys on a movie set. Sabotage soon points to a jealous friend, but who? Meanwhile, the boys have an uneasy relationship with three local skateboarding "toughs." Young Adult.

This is the third adrenalin-pumping outdoor sports adventure in the Take It to the Extreme series with best friends Peter and Jake. It's summer vacation, and when Ron, a former guide with Sam's Adventure Tours, invites Jake and Peter to help develop a mountain bike trail in in British Columbia, near the American border, the boys can't believe their luck. Or so they think. As they start working hard in an isolated park, the boys sense that Ron might not be telling the truth and they begin to question his motives. When Peter tells Jake about his misgivings, things start to heat up. Join the boys as they plunge into the mountain-biking descent of their lives.

When Jake gets an opportunity be part of the crew for an eight-day whitewater rafting trip along the Cattibone River, he jumps at it. Not even the news that his kayaking rival, Peter, is coming along as a paying customer can dampen his excitement. Riding down the isolated Cattibone River with its dangerous Class IV rapids will be the perfect opportunity to prove to his boss that he`s ready to be promoted from company " gofer" to river guide, even though he`s only 15 years old. The rafting adventure starts smoothly, but just three days in, things start to go tragically wrong. One of the guides is badly injured, and when a grizzly bear enters the camp and destroys one of the rafts, the group is in danger of being stranded in the wilderness. It is up to Jake and Peter to pit their kayaking skills against the mighty Cattibone River. Alone, the two boys attempt to kayak over 160 kilometres of whitewater rapids to summon help. Racing against time and wilderness dangers, they must overcome their rivalry and work together. Will they make it in time? Raging River is the first in Whitecap`s new Take It To the Extreme Series. Future titles include Peak Survival and Adrenalin Ride.