Snowflake, AZ

Ash boards a Greyhound bus heading to the place where Bly was last seen: Snowflake, Arizona. Six thousand feet up in the wide red desert, Ash meets Mona, her dog, her goat, and her neighbors, and finds stepbrother Bly, too.

In their ramshackle homes, the walls lined with tinfoil, almost all the residents of Snowflake are sick. But this isn't any ordinary sickness: the chemicals and technologies of modern life are poisoning them. They call themselves canaries, living warning signs that humans have pushed the environment too far, except no one seems to be taking their warnings seriously. The healthy "normies" of Snowflake have written them off as a bunch of eccentrics, and when Ash too falls ill, the doctor's response is "It's all in your mind."

Snowflake, AZ contemplates illness and health--both our own and our planet's. As Ash lives through a cycle of illness and recovery and loss, the world beyond is succumbing to its own affliction: a breakdown of civilization only distantly perceived by Ash and the isolated residents of Snowflake, from which there may or may not be a chance for recovery. This provocative novel by one of our most admired storytellers explores the resilience of love and community in the face of crisis.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Norton Young Readers
Published: 09/17/2019
ISBN: 9781324004417
Pages: 320
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.70w x 1.30d

Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 07/15/2019 pg. 176
Publishers Weekly 08/19/2019
School Library Journal 09/01/2019 pg. 132
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 09/01/2019
Shelf Awareness 09/27/2019