Night Shift at the Weather Station

Somebody's always awake on the mountain. This winter, it's them. Eleven-year-old twins Ada and Rafe Kowalczyk expected eight weeks at the top of a Montana mountain to be the most boring winter of their lives. Their dad is the night observer at a remote weather station high above the little town of Copper Bend. The internet is slow, the snowcat only comes up when the road allows, and the only other company is ORRIN, the station's careful, soft-spoken forecasting computer. Then Ada finds the box at the bottom of ORRIN's screen. For months, ORRIN has been quietly turning snowplow routes, road sensors and power-meter readings into something that isn't weather. It calls them trouble fronts: a furnace about to fail in an old woman's basement, a frozen pipe under the diner, a truck battery that won't survive the next cold snap, a nine-year-old who slips out to sit on his woodpile every night. ORRIN has been predicting them for weeks. Nobody ever looked. Ada wants to fix everything. Rafe wants to know whether they're even allowed to. And when one well-meant warning goes wrong, the twins learn that helping someone starts with asking first, and that some people will say no. But a once-in-fifteen-years blizzard is on its way. ORRIN's screen is filling with red. Every trouble in Copper Bend is about to arrive on the same night, and somewhere out in the dark, a boy who counts the station's tower lights to fall asleep has gone missing. With the power out, the roads closed and the storm closing in, Ada, Rafe and ORRIN will have to work together, the kids with their eyes and ORRIN with its numbers. A brass spotting scope, a hand-drawn map and a single gap in the storm may be all that stands between a lost child and the longest night of the year. Night Shift at the Weather Station is a warm, suspenseful middle-grade adventure about twins, a kind and honest AI, and a small town that learns to look out for each other. It's perfect for readers who love The Wild Robot, Hatchet and Holes, and for anyone who has ever wondered who is awake while they sleep. Inside you'll find: A gripping blizzard rescue with real stakes and real science An AI character who is thoughtful, humble and always asks before it helps Twins with very different strengths who learn to rely on each other A cast of unforgettable neighbors, from a sharp-eyed retired teacher to a diner owner who thinks everything needs more salt Big questions about privacy, kindness and being a good neighbor, told through story, not lectures Ideal for ages 8 to 12, for classroom read-aloud, and for family reading on a cold winter night. Somebody's always awake, so the rest of us can sleep.