Description
Product Description
“Reminiscent of Louis Sachar’s Holes with its quirky characters and unique desert setting, this is a middle-grade read that will easily transport readers somewhere special.” —School Library Journal (Starred review)
When you come from Nowhere, can you ever really make it anywhere? Author Dusti Bowling (Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus) returns to the desert to create a gripping story about friendship, hope, and finding the power we all have within ourselves.
Welcome to Nowhere, Arizona, the least livable town in the United States. For Gus, a bright 13-year-old with dreams of getting out and going to college, life there is made even worse by Bo Taylor, Nowhere’s biggest, baddest bully. When Bo tries to force Gus to eat a dangerously spiny cactus, Rossi Scott, one of the best racers in Nowhere, comes to his rescue—but in return she has to give Bo her prized dirt bike. Determined to buy it back, Gus agrees to go searching for gold in Dead Frenchman Mine, joined by his old friends Jessie Navarro and Matthew Dufort, and Rossi herself. As they hunt for treasure, narrowly surviving everything from cave-ins to mountain lions, they bond over shared stories of how hard life in Nowhere is—and they realize this adventure just may be their way out.
Review
“Thirteen-year-old Gus is a white boy from Nowhere. Literally. Nowhere, AZ: population depressed, poverty-stricken, and stagnant. Dirt bike racing is the only blip on the town’s flat-lining pulse. Gus is smart, but his small size makes him a natural target for Bo, the town bully. When Rossi, a Tohono O’odham girl with a talent for racing, stands up for Gus, she loses her beloved bike to Bo. Gus vows to get it back for her. Bo’s terms require Gus to enter a closed mine with a history of collapses and find gold rumored to have been lost decades ago. Gus agrees and is joined by one of Bo’s minions, an old friend, and Rossi. Each an outcast in some way, the kids form a bond through their harrowing 24-hour adventure. This allows each to gain strength from the others and push on. Conversations among the young teens reveal Gus’s burgeoning awareness of his white privilege as he listens to the experiences of his Latinx and Native American friends. This story features wonderfully funny, surprising characters with witty, realistic dialogue. Friendships are forged, lives are changed, and mysteries are solved. VERDICT Reminiscent of Louis Sachar’s
Holes with its quirky characters and unique desert setting, this is a middle-grade read that will easily transport readers somewhere special.” —
School Library Journal (Starred review)
“Short, smart Gus is regularly tormented by Bo, a ‘thirteen-year-old in the body of an eighteen-year-old with the mind of an eight-year-old.’ In their hot, dry, rundown town of Nowhere, Arizona, kids like Gus who don't race dirt bikes are, socially speaking, the lowest of the low. So, it is the highest sacrifice when the best dirt bike racer in town, Rossi, a citizen of the Tohono O'odham tribe, offers her beloved bike to Bo to save Gus. Determined to make things right by her, Gus agrees to Bo's ridiculous demand for a piece of gold from the collapsing mine outside town in exchange for the bike. In no time, Gus, Rossi and two former friends who have unexpectedly joined the foolhardy expedition get lost in a mine, trapped in a cave-in, attacked by wild animals and nearly drown in a mysterious underground lake with skeletons and ‘strange mutant albino shrimp.’ They're also coming to terms with the idea that even if their ancestors were murderous, mortal enemies—which, well, they were—the kids don't need to carry on the feuding tradition. Readers who loved Holes and Dusti Bowling's earlier novel, Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus, will be delighted with 24 Hours in Nowhere, a similarly captivating novel abounding in wordplay, eccentric personalities and an evocative setting: ‘Nowhere was the best at a lot of things: number