Most Popular Books by Will Hobbs

Will Hobbs’s classic tale of whitewater adventure is back in print with an exciting new look. No adults, no permit, no river map. After fifteen-year-old Jessie gets sent to Discovery Unlimited, an outdoor education program, she and six companions “borrow” the company’s rafting gear and take off down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon on their own. Floating beneath sheer red walls, camping on white sand beaches, and exploring caves and waterfalls, Jessie and the others are having the time of their lives—at first. But when they’re pursued by helicopters, they boldly push on into the black-walled inner gorge, the heart of the Grand Canyon, only to encounter huge rapids, bone-chilling rain, injuries, and conflict within the group. What will be the consequences of their reckless adventure? This riveting novel includes an author’s note about his own rafting experiences and has been ranked by the American Library Association as a “100 Best of the Best” for twenty-five years—a testament to the enduring popularity of the action and adventure that await in Downriver.

"Gold!" Jason shouted at the top of his lungs. "Read all about it! Gold discovered in Alaska!" Within hours of hearing the thrilling news, fifteen-year-old Jason Hawthorn jumps a train for Seattle, stow away on a ship bound for the goldfields, and joins thousands of fellow prospectors attempting the difficult journey to the Klondike. The Dead Horse Trail, the infamous Chilkott Pass, and a five-hundred-mile trip by canoe down the Yukon River lie ahead. With help from a young writer named Jack London, Jason and his dog face moose, bears, and the terrors of a subartic winter in this bone-chilling survival story. 00-01 Tayshas High School Reading List, 01-02 Young Hoosier Book Award Masterlist (Gr 4-6), 01-02 Young Hoosier Book Award Masterlist (Gr 6-8), 01-02 William Allen White Children''s Book Award Masterlist, and 01 Heartland Award for Excellence in YA Lit Finalist Notable Children''s Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies 2000, National Council for SS & Child. Book Council, 2000 Best Books for Young Adults (ALA), and 2000 Quick Picks for Young Adults (Recomm. Books for Reluctant Young Readers)

A troubled Indian boy goes to live with an elderly rancher whose caring ways help the boy become a man.

From the window of the small floatplane, fifteen-year-old Gabe Rogers is getting his first look at Canada''s magnificent Northwest Territories with Raymond Providence, his roommate from boarding school. Below is the spectacular Nahanni River -- wall-to-wall whitewater racing between sheer cliffs and plunging over Virginia Falls. The pilot sets the plane down on the lake-like surface of the upper river for a closer look at the thundering falls. Suddenly the engine quits. The only sound is a dull roar downstream, as the Cessna drifts helplessly toward the falls . . . With the brutal subarctic winter fast approaching, Gabe and Raymond soon find themselves stranded in Deadmen Valley. Trapped in a frozen world of moose, wolves, and bears, two boys from vastly different cultures come to depend on each other for their very survival.

Jessie, Troy, and the rest of the crew from Downriver have returned to the Grand Canyon for adventure down the Colorado River. In the year since they last were together, each has changed; each feels more mature. But how will they interact now that they are facing new challenges--challenges greater than anything they''ve had to deal with at home? For Troy, it is a chance to prove he can be a team player, someone worthy of friendship and love. For Jessie, the river is the ultimate test. Does she have what it takes to row down the mighty Colorado? The only way to find out is to get into the raft and set off to face the thundering rapids and the powerful emotions that the river unleashes.

A Summer To Remember Fourteen-year-old Clay Lancaster has been dreaming for years of the adventure he calls The Big Wander -- a summer in the Southwest with his older brother, Mike, searching for their uncle Clay. When Mike decides to return home to Seattle and the girlfriend he left behind, Clay chooses to stay on and continue the search on his own. Following a tip about his uncle, he heads out into the most remote canyons of the Navajo reservation, with only a burro and a dog named Curly for company. Clay loses his heart to the vast, rugged land -- and to an adventurous girl with a long, dark braid -- but finds his uncle in big trouble. Can Clay pull off a risky plan to save his uncle -- and the wild horses Uncle Clay has put his own life in jeopardy to protect?

Saving The Last Grizzlies As this action-packed sequel to Bearstone opens, Cloyd Atcitty and his rancher friend Walter Landis are heading back into the mountains, this time chasing the old man''s dream of finding a lost Spanish gold mine. But when Cloyd hears that a mother grizzly and her cubs have been sighted nearby, he immediately hopes it might be the mate of the bear he had tried to save from a hunter the previous summer. When the mother bear dies in a tragic accident, Cloyd realizes that if her cubs don''t survive, grizzlies will disappear from Colorado forever. He refuses to leave the cubs, determined to stay with them until they can den. But with winter deepening in the mountains, can Cloyd himself survive?

Deep in trouble, Deep in the canyons Fourteen-year-old Dylan Sands has come all the way from North Carolina to Big Bend National Park, on the Texas/Mexico border, to paddle the fabled Rio Grande. His partner in adventure is a local river rat, his cousin Rio. As the two are packing their boats for ten days in the canyons, six Black Hawk helicopters appear overhead and race across the river into Mexico. The army won''t tell the boys what''s happening, but they are given a weather advisory: A hurricane is approaching the Gulf of Mexico. Dylan and Rio have their hearts set on their trip and can''t give it up. Rio believes that their chances of running into border troubles or a major storm are slim to none. By canoe and raft, Dylan and Rio venture into the most rugged and remote reaches of the U.S./Mexico border. You may well not see another human being during the duration of your trip, the guidebook tells them. They don''t, until a man stumbles into camp with a seven-year-old boy. A storm is brewing as the man who calls himself Carlos begs for help . . . and the boy is trembling with fear.

Andy is in a world of trouble. On the last day of a sea kayaking trip in southeast Alaska, fourteen-year-old Andy Galloway paddles away from his group to visit the nearby site where his archaeologist father died trying to solve the mystery of the first Americans. A sudden, violent storm blows Andy''s kayak off course and washes him ashore on Admiralty Island, an immense wilderness known as the Fortress of the Bears. Struggling to survive, Andy encounters a dog running with wolves and then a man toting a stone-tipped spear. The wild man vanishes into the forest, but the dog reappears and leads Andy to a cave filled with Stone Age tools and weapons. Running for his life, Andy retreats deep into the cave, where danger, suspense, and discovery await.

When falling crop prices threaten his family with starvation, fifteen-year-old Victor Flores heads north in an attempt to "cross the wire" from Mexico into the United States so he can find work and send money home. But with no coyote money to pay the smugglers who sneak illegal workers across the border, Victor must struggle to survive as he jumps trains, stows away on trucks, and hikes grueling miles through the Arizona desert. Victor''s journey is fraught with danger, freezing cold, scorching heat, hunger, and dead ends. It''s a gauntlet run by millions attempting to cross the border. Through Victor''s often desperate struggle, Will Hobbs brings to life one of the great human dramas of our time.

THE MAGIC HAD ALWAYS BEEN THERE. Tep Jones has always felt the magic of Picture House, an Anasazi cliff dwelling near the seed farm where he lives with his parents. But he could never have imagined what would happen to him on the night of a lunar eclipse, when he finds a bone flute left behind by grave robbers. Tep falls under the spell of a powerful ancient magic that traps him at night in the body of an animal. Only by unraveling the mysteries of Picture House can Tep save himself and his desperately ill mother. Does the enigmatic old Indian who calls himself Cricket hold the key to unlocking the secrets of the past? And can Tep find the answers in time?

The great race across Alaska! As Dawson City goes up in flames, Jason Hawthorn itches to join the new rush for gold in Nome, 1,700 miles away. He and his brothers have been cheated out of their sawmill, so when a $20,000 prize is announced for the winner of a race to Nome, Jason enters. His partner in the canoe is Jamie Dunavant, the adventurous girl he loves. Will they make it to the finish line, despite the hazards of the Yukon River, two dangerous rivals, and the terrors of the open sea?

Just fourteen, Rick Walder is alone, on the run, and desperate. Stowing away in the back of a truck, he suddenly finds himself at a dead end, out in the middle of nowhere. The Maze. In this surreal landscape of stark redrock spires and deep sandstone canyons, Rick stumbles into the remote camp of Lon Perigrino, a bird biologist who is realeasing fledgling California condors back into the wild. Intriqued by the endangered condors and the strange bearded man dedicated to saving them, Rick decides to stay on. When two men with a vicious dog drive up in a battered old Humvee, Rick discovers that Lon and his birds are in grave danger. Will he be able to save them? In a heart-stopping adventure infused with the spirit of the Icarus myth and a boy''s dreams of flight, Will Hobbs brings readers a unique tale of identity, personal growth, and friendship. 01 Blue Spruce Award Masterlist (YA Cat.), 01 AZ Young Reader Award Masterlist (Teen Bks cat.), 00-01 Sunshine State Young Reader''s Award Masterlist (Gr. 6-8), 00-01 Black-Eyed Susan Award Masterlist, 00-01 Minnesota''s Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award Masterlist, 00-01 South Carolina Book Award Nomination Masterlist (Grds 6-9), 00-01 Lone Star Reading List, 00-01 Utah Book Award (Gr. 7-12), 01 Washington State Evergreen YA Book Award Masterlist, 00-01 Young Hoosier Book Award Masterlist (Gr. 6-8), and 01 Rebecca Caudill Young Readers'' Book Award Nominee Masterlist

Raised in the island world of southeast Alaska, sixteen-year-old Robbie Daniels jumps at the chance to work as a deckhand on a salmon troller captained by legendary fisherman Tor Torsen. Catching king salmon from dawn till dusk, Robbie is living his dream -- until he discovers his mysterious captain''s dark secret. Tor is illegally searching the coastline for historic metal plaques buried by early Russian explorers. When Robbie learns the value of these hidden treasures, he fears he may know too much tosurvive. Tor''s wrath and a violent storm at sea put Robbie''s courage and wits to the ultimate test.

Heart-stopping adventure on the wild side of Seattle! How do you rescue a coyote trapped in the elevator of a downtown office building? How do you save an injured seal at the bottom of a cliff with the tide coming in? Fourteen-year-old Shannon and her younger brother, Cody, are about to find out as they spend a summer of breathless, sometimes reckless, often hilarious adventure visiting their uncle Neal at a wildlife center called Jackie''s Wild Seattle. When Uncle Neal is injured, it''s up to Shannon, Cody, and Sage, the rescue dog, to keep the circle of healing unbroken.

Hanni the wolf pup has never been alone before, and now she''s lost in the wilderness. She''s too little and scared even to cry out for help! But Hanni soon learns to trust the world outside and the wolf inside--and finally discovers a howl within, long a deep, that brings her family to the rescue. From an award-winning novelist comes this thrilling picture-book tale, illustrated with dynamic paintings that capture the dramatic landscape of the far north.

A meteorite is hurtling toward the Black Hills of South Dakota. . . . Brady Steele watches in awe as a fireball comes crashing through the roof of his house. Brady immediately calls up his cousin, Quinn. They both love all things extreme, and this is the most extreme thing ever! Fred, as Brady names his space rock, turns out to be one of the rarest meteorites ever found. Professor Rip Ripley from the museum in Hill City wants to study a sliver of it in search of extraterrestrial bacteria. He''s hoping to discover the first proof of life beyond Earth, a momentous breakthrough for the new science of astrobiology. During a wild week of extreme bicycling, fishing, and caving, Brady and Quinn battle their rivals, the notorious Carver boys, for possession of the meteorite. With each new day, Brady is discovering he''s able to do strange and wonderful feats that shouldn''t be possible. At the same time, he''s developing some frightening symptoms. Could he be infected with long-dormant microbes from space? Is Fred a prize or a menace?

Rich in adventure, history, and humor, an odyssey set in the twilight of the Wild West spun by Will Hobbs Weeks after arriving in Colorado to start a new farm, the Hollowell family is looking at disaster when fifteen-year-old Owen witnesses the theft of their mules. Learning that Hercules and Peaches will likely be sold to the mines, Owen sets out to track the rustler over the mountains. It’s all Ma can do to hold back little brother Till, who’s more than a handful. The outlaw’s trail leads to Telluride, the turbulent “City of Gold.” Owen gets help from a resourceful girl named Molly and dubious assistance from Till, who shows up on the train from Durango. Telluride’s notorious marshal finally takes an interest when he identifies the rustler as one of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch. The lawman leads Owen and Till on horseback into the canyon country and all the way to Robbers Roost. For readers who love adventure and humor, Will Hobbs delivers a stirring tale of two brothers who risk it all to recover their mules and secure their future.

Trouble In Paradise Sixteen-year-old Travis is looking for a good time. A vacation in Mexico with his mother, sister, and little brother might cramp his style, but he''s willing to take that risk for a chance to cruise the beaches. Travis soon discovers that even with his headphones and shades, he can''t completely cut himself off from his family''s problems. He begins to understand why his father didn''t come with them: His mother is contemplating a divorce. Meanwhile his younger brother, Teddy, becomes increasingly obsessed with protecting some endangered sea turtles near the resort. In spite of himself, Travis is drawn into Teddy''s efforts to save the turtles. But it takes a devastating tragedy beyond his imagining to shake Travis out of his cynicism -- a tragedy that will change his family forever.

Award-winning author and master of adventure Will Hobbs delivers a breathless mystery that will have readers on the edge of their seats! After a sailing ship breaks up on the rocks off Washington''s storm-tossed Cape Flattery, Nathan McAllister, the fourteen-year-old son of the lighthouse keeper, refuses to believe the authorities, who say there were no survivors. Unexplained footprints on a desolate beach, a theft at the trading post, and glimpses of a wild mystery man convince Nathan that someone is hiding in the remote sea caves along the coast. With his new friend, Lighthouse George, a fisherman from the famed Makah whaling tribe, Nathan paddles the fierce waters of the Pacific searching for clues. And once alone in the forest, Nathan may have found some: a ghostly canoe and a skeleton that may unlock the mystery of ancient treasure, betrayal . . .and murder. This thrilling middle grade adventure from Will Hobbs, a former teacher and the author of beloved books such as Far North, was chosen for Georgia''s Children''s Book Award Masterlist.