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Across the Desert  By  cover art

Across the Desert

By: Dusti Bowling
Narrated by: Stacy Gonzalez
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Publisher's summary

One girl sets out on a journey across the treacherous Arizona desert to rescue a young pilot stranded after a plane crash in this gripping story of survival, friendship, and rescue from a bestselling and award-winning author.

Twelve-year-old Jolene spends every day she can at the library watching her favorite livestream: The Desert Aviator, where twelve-year-old "Addie Earhart" shares her adventures flying an ultralight plane over the desert. While watching this daring girl fly through the sky, Jolene can dream of what it would be like to fly with her, far away from her own troubled home life where her mother struggles with a narcotic addiction. And Addie, who is grieving the loss of her father, finds solace in her online conversations with Jolene, her biggest - and only - fan.

Then, one day, it all goes wrong: Addie's engine abruptly stops, and Jolene watches in helpless horror as the ultralight plummets to the ground and the video goes dark. Jolene knows that Addie won't survive long in the extreme summer desert heat. With no one to turn to for help and armed with only a hand-drawn map and a stolen cell phone, it's up to Jolene to find a way to save the Desert Aviator. Packed with adventure and heart, Across the Desert speaks to the resilience, hope, and strength within each of us.

©2021 Dusti Bowling (P)2022 Tantor

What listeners say about Across the Desert

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Great book

Awesome story of friendship, strength, and overcoming adversity. I really loved the story, and the reader was great.

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Realistic Adventure

Great story that left me hanging at the end of each brief chapter. Good narrative and realistic for today’s young teens. Part of the story involves drug abuse by adults FYI. Young adults will like this book.

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🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫💫💫💫💫💫

Such a great book!
Love it so so so so much! Please write a sequel!

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Daring & epic adventure

Great book!
This book was quite a page turner, leaving me at the edge of my seat! What an incredible journey for a young girl to go across the desert to save a friend she’s only met online.
The narrator was amazing and really made this story come to life!
-girl age 13


This book was awesome!
This was an inspiring book about a girl, whose friend crashed a plane in the desert, and she was all alone. so the main character Jolene goes to great extent to save her. she was very brave and dedicated to helping her friend, and she had lots of courage, and it was very very inspiring and it was exciting and adventurous The author did an amazing job writing the story in a way that I could imagine every detail like I was there myself.
-boy age 11


For the most part I did enjoy this book! I loved the characters and the accuracy of the Sonoran Desert. The journey J went on was incredible and almost far-fetched for what a child can handle or deal with. As a mom, this story gave me anxiety haha. I definitely had some great discussions with my kids about the challenges the characters faced. I would recommend reading this book!
-mom

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Wow!

This book was so good and we loved the narrater so much! I recommend this book to all so amazing! Adventure with heart! ❤️

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a wonderful book!

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this book. The story is wonderful. parts of it made me cry. parts of it made me rude. cheer for the characters truly must read

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