Plan B is Total Panic

Book excerpt: The last thing Nicholas wants to do is spend time in the Alberta bush, with the bugs, the bears, the cold. But when he crosses the school bully at the Grade Seven dance, his Dene friend Elvis's invitation for a weekend away suddenly seems much more attractive. Walking on the muskeg, Nicholas feels completely lost--the landscape is strange, and so are the language and customs of Elvis's native family. Soon, however, Nicholas sees the point of what they say and do, how it helps them adapt to the harshness of the environment. When Nicholas and Elvis's bushplane crashes, killing the pilot, they need to draw on all the skills they have--and some they didn't even suspect they had. Set against the harsh background of the northern bush, Plan B is Total Panic is the story of how two young men of very different backgrounds are brought together by crisis.