by Dusti Bowling (Author), Stacy Gonzalez (Narrator), Tantor Audio (Publisher)

An Audiobook Review

I bought and listened to this book because I have read and loved two other Dusti Bowling books for middle-grade kids. Like the others, “Across the Desert” is full of excitement, hardship and heartache, and a whole lot of need to overcome a giant obstacle or two.  In this book, that obstacle is undeniably the blazing hot desert. But it is also a preteen girl’s desperate need for friendship and to be “believed.”

Jolene’s mom is addicted to oxycodone after a severe injury in an auto accident. She is incapacitated and completely ignores her daughter. Jolene finds some joy at the library watching “The Desert Aviator,” a live-stream show starring a young girl who flies an Ultralight plane over the Arizona desert. The two become friends, and then one day, as Jolene watches, Addie screams and crashes the Ultralight into the desert floor. The audio and visual livestream is immediately lost. 

Jolene is terrified for her friend. But everybody, from the Librarian to a local cop to the ranger station in the desert, refuses to listen to her. No one believes her. Even her mother is so spaced out that she can’t respond to Jolene’s pleas.  And so the girl sets out on her own with her mom’s cell phone and charger, a credit card, a jug of water, some snacks, and a map she’s drawn to rescue her only “friend.”  According to Jolene’s map, the crash is 300 miles away. 

The following journey is arduous and desperate. Terrible things happen to Jolene, but she presses on, knowing the urgency of Addie’s situation. Along the way, a 17-year-old girl, Martina, is dragged into the impossible rescue and provides some help that a 12-year-old couldn’t manage. 

But they run out of water and cell phone service. They are injured, exhausted, and out of strength. Despite all the obstacles, Jolene never loses sight of her goal and finally glimpses the crashed ultralight.

But the worst of the journey is ahead, with a very sick and injured Addie. Can they all survive?

Jolene’s strength and resilience will inspire readers. And the help that finally comes from strangers will encourage anyone who feels they are in desperate or hopeless circumstances.  I highly recommend the book to adults as well as kids.