The Burning Season

Twelve-year-old Opal is preparing to become a fourth-generation lookout on Wolf Mountain, deep in the New Mexico wilderness. She, Mom, and Gran live at ten thousand feet in a single room at the top of a fire tower. They are responsible for spotting any hint of smoke before it becomes an uncontrollable blaze. But Opal has a secret: she’s deathly afraid of fire. Instead of training for the lonely life of a lookout, Opal wishes she could be starting school in Silver City, attending classes with kids her own age. But Wolf Mountain has other ideas. When Mom makes the long trek to town for supplies and Gran goes missing, Opal is the only one to spot a tell-tale spiral of smoke moving up the mountainside. She’ll have to be braver than she’s ever been as she heads into the woods, beyond Wolf Ridge’s old blackened burn scar, to face down a fire on her own. But a fire is what took her father away, and Opal has already felt the sting of smoke and lick of flames. How can she be brave enough to do this on her own?