The Burning Season

In this riveting coming-of-age survival story in verse, perfect for fans of Alan Gratz, a fire lookout-in-training must find her courage when a wildfire breaks out on her watch.

The Burning Season introduces twelve-year-old Opal, who has a secret—she's deathly afraid of fire. Despite her fear, Opal is preparing to become a fourth-generation lookout on Wolf Mountain, deep in the New Mexico wilderness. She, her mum, and her gran live at ten thousand feet in a single room at the top of a fire tower. Their responsibility is to spot any hint of smoke before it becomes an uncontrollable blaze.

Rather than training for the solitary life of a lookout, Opal wishes she could be starting seventh grade in Silver City. She longs to attend real classes with peers her own age and partake in afterschool clubs like FFA. However, Wolf Mountain has other plans.

When her mum embarks on the long trek to town for supplies and her gran goes missing, Opal becomes the sole person to notice a tell-tale spiral of smoke ascending the mountainside. She must summon courage she never knew she had as she ventures into the woods, beyond Wolf Ridge’s old blackened burn scar, to confront a fire on her own. With the memory of her father lost to fire and her own encounters with the sting of smoke and lick of flames, Opal faces the daunting question: how can she be brave enough when it truly matters?