Take

De: Jennifer Bradbury

Narrado por: Sura Siu, Matt Pittenger

Two teens uncover a secret hidden in the Cascade Mountains that spans generations, stringing together family skeletons, lost stories, and a discovery of love and self in this tense and emotional young adult thriller with “great holds, great movement, and a worthwhile finish” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).

Cara is on the cusp of adventure. Unlike her best friends, she doesn’t want to go to college, she wants different kinds of challenges. And anyway, home just doesn’t fit anymore. She is growing distant from her friends and hasn’t spoken to her father in eons. To make matters worse, her ex-boyfriend and fellow climber, Nat, has popped back into town after breaking up with her over text. So it’s the perfect time to leave, and she has big plans for a gap year to rock-climb in Patagonia.

But when Cara hears that her father is actually missing, things change. While trying to track him down, she discovers a trail of clues centering around the history and life of the legendary mountaineer, outdoorsman, author, and all-around climber (or “dirtbag”), Beckett Friedrichs. And unfortunately, the only person who knows enough about Friedrichs to make sense of any of this is Nat.

Their search for Cara’s father will lead into the Cascade Mountains, up a harrowing rock face, and through time as Nat and Cara explore the history of World War II with the impact of Pearl Harbor and its Japanese Incarceration Camps, Cara’s family, and each other.

©2023 Jennifer Bradbury (P)2023 Simon & Schuster Audio

Heartfelt story, love the climbing

I really enjoyed this layered narrative. The author managed to use flashbacks to 1941 really effectively, and I also loved the mystery element of the modern day timeline, as the main character attempted to find her eccentric rock climbing father who’d gone missing. I’m an amateur rock climber, and I was really impressed with the author’s breadth of knowledge, but also how she made the climbing terms clear and actually entertaining (I now really want a copy of Beck Frederick’s Guide to Speaking Dirtbag—too bad it’s a fictional construct). As a former teacher, this is great for high schoolers, but it’s clean enough for a seventh grader who has advanced reading skills. It’s also a great crossover novel for adults. Added bonus, it addresses the injustice of Japanese Internment camps in a really thoughtful way, so I could see this as a great classroom read in an American history class. Highly recommend.