Angry and full of attitude, Dylan steals a car and goes for a joyride, which is the last straw for his overwhelmed mother. She sends him to stay with his Uncle Todd for the rest of the summer. Uncle Todd is no softie either! He expects Dylan to show respect and get over his poor attitude toward life. In fact, he expects Dylan to go with him to the jungles of Papua New Guinea to search for his grandfather's abandoned plane crash site from World War II. Dylan doesn't want to go and doesn't listen to any advice he's given about staying safe in the jungle. Of course, Dylan gets lost and gets malaria and is bitten by a snake - so will he survive?I've loved all the Ben Mikaelsen books I've read... until this one. I found it predictable and kind of repetitive. It seemed like he was trying to recycle the main character from Touching Spirit Bear and put him into this book. Same bad attitude, same stupid choices, same near-death experience, same life-altering adventure. For three or four different characters to refer to elderly people as "old fossils" made it seem like the author was kind of phoning it in. As a middle school librarian, I can definitely promote this book to kids who are looking for action and adventure, but as an adult, I thought it wasn't great. Dylan has a huge attitude. After his Dad is killed working overseas he just thinks life is a joke.After getting caught on a joyride in a stolen car, he is shipped off to live with his uncle for the summer. Uncle Todd is an ex-Marine and has big plans for Dylan. They are going to travel to Papua New Guinea to search for a WW11 bomber named Second Ace that crashed during the war. The bomber's only survivor was Dylan's own grandfather. Dylan wanders away from the search group in a snit and discovers he is lost in the jungle. He discovers a lot about himself in his struggle for survival. This book certainly kept my interest!
