Will Hobbs – författare

In this riveting, action-packed novel from award-winning author Will Hobbs, a teenage boy hoping to help his loved ones must fight for his life as he makes the dangerous journey across the Mexican border into the United States. This middle grade novel is an excellent choice for tween readers in grades 5 to 6, especially during homeschooling. It’s a fun way to keep your child entertained and engaged while not in the classroom.

When falling crop prices threaten his family with starvation, fifteen-year-old Victor Flores heads north in an attempt to "cross the wire" from Mexico into America so he can find work and help ease the finances at home.

But with no coyote money to pay the smugglers who sneak illegal workers across the border, Victor struggles to survive as he jumps trains, stows away on trucks, and hikes grueling miles through the Arizona desert.

Victor''s passage is fraught with freezing cold, scorching heat, hunger, and dead ends. It''s a gauntlet run by many attempting to cross the border, but few make it. Through Victor''s desperate perseverance, Will Hobbs brings to life a story that is true for many, polarizing for some, but life-changing for all who read it.

Acclaim for Crossing the Wire includes the following: New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age, Junior Library Guild Selection, Americas Awards Commended Title, Heartland Award, Southwest Book Award, and Notable Books for Global Society.

As Dawson City goes up in flames, Jason Hawthorn itches to join the new rush for gold in Nome, 1,700 miles away. He and his brothers have been cheated out of their sawmill, so when a $20,000 prize is announced for the winner of a race to Nome, Jason enters. His partner in the canoe is Jamie Dunavant, the adventurous girl he loves. Will they make it to the finish line, despite the hazards of the Yukon River, two dangerous rivals, and the terrors of the open sea?

From the window of the small floatplane, fifteen-year-old Gabe Rogers is getting his first look at Canada''s magnificent Northwest Territories with Raymond Providence, his roommate from boarding school. Below is the spectacular Nahanni River -- wall-to-wall whitewater racing between sheer cliffs and plunging over Virginia Falls. The pilot sets the plane down on the lake-like surface of the upper river for a closer look at the thundering falls. Suddenly the engine quits. The only sound is a dull roar downstream, as the Cessna drifts helplessly toward the falls . . .

With the brutal subarctic winter fast approaching, Gabe and Raymond soon find themselves stranded in Deadmen Valley. Trapped in a frozen world of moose, wolves, and bears, two boys from vastly different cultures come to depend on each other for their very survival.

Award-winning author and master of adventure Will Hobbs delivers a breathless mystery that will have readers on the edge of their seats!

After a sailing ship breaks up on the rocks off Washington''s storm-tossed Cape Flattery, Nathan McAllister, the fourteen-year-old son of the lighthouse keeper, refuses to believe the authorities, who say there were no survivors. Unexplained footprints on a desolate beach, a theft at the trading post, and glimpses of a wild mystery man convince Nathan that someone is hiding in the remote sea caves along the coast.

With his new friend, Lighthouse George, a fisherman from the famed Makah whaling tribe, Nathan paddles the fierce waters of the Pacific searching for clues. And once alone in the forest, Nathan may have found some: a ghostly canoe and a skeleton that may unlock the mystery of ancient treasure, betrayal . . .and murder.

This thrilling middle grade adventure from Will Hobbs, a former teacher and the author of beloved books such as Far North, was chosen for Georgia''s Children''s Book Award Masterlist.

A meteorite is hurtling toward the Black Hills of South Dakota. . . .

Brady Steele''s love for all things extreme is given a boost when a fireball crashes through the roof of his house. It turns out that Brady''s space rock is one of the rarest meteorites ever found. In fact, a professor from a nearby museum wants to study it in search of extraterrestrial bacteria, hoping to discover the first proof of life beyond Earth.

During a wild week of extreme bicycling, fishing, and caving, Brady discovers he''s able to do strange and wonderful feats that shouldn''t be possible. At the same time, he''s developing some frightening symptoms. Could he be infected with long-dormant microbes from space? Is his meteorite a prize . . . or a menace?

How do you rescue a coyote trapped in the elevator of a downtown office building? How do you save an injured seal at the bottom of a cliff with the tide coming in? Fourteen-year-old Shannon and her younger brother, Cody, are about to find out as they spend a summer of breathless, sometimes reckless, often hilarious adventure visiting their uncle Neal at a wildlife center called Jackie''s Wild Seattle.

When Uncle Neal is injured, it''s up to Shannon, Cody, and Sage, the rescue dog, to keep the circle of healing unbroken.

"Gold!" Jason shouted at the top of his lungs. "Read all about it! Gold discovered in Alaska!"

Within hours of hearing the thrilling news, fifteen-year-old Jason Hawthorn jumps a train for Seattle, stow away on a ship bound for the goldfields, and joins thousands of fellow prospectors attempting the difficult journey to the Klondike. The Dead Horse Trail, the infamous Chilkott Pass, and a five-hundred-mile trip by canoe down the Yukon River lie ahead. With help from a young writer named Jack London, Jason and his dog face moose, bears, and the terrors of a subartic winter in this bone-chilling survival story.

00-01 Tayshas High School Reading List, 01-02 Young Hoosier Book Award Masterlist (Gr 4-6), 01-02 Young Hoosier Book Award Masterlist (Gr 6-8), 01-02 William Allen White Children''s Book Award Masterlist, and 01 Heartland Award for Excellence in YA Lit Finalist

Notable Children''s Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies 2000, National Council for SS & Child. Book Council, 2000 Best Books for Young Adults (ALA), and 2000 Quick Picks for Young Adults (Recomm. Books for Reluctant Young Readers)

Raised in the island world of southeast Alaska, sixteen-year-old Robbie Daniels jumps at the chance to work as a deckhand on a salmon troller captained by legendary fisherman Tor Torsen. Catching king salmon from dawn till dusk, Robbie is living his dream -- until he discovers his mysterious captain''s dark secret. Tor is illegally searching the coastline for historic metal plaques buried by early Russian explorers. When Robbie learns the value of these hidden treasures, he fears he may know too much tosurvive. Tor''s wrath and a violent storm at sea put Robbie''s courage and wits to the ultimate test.

01 Blue Spruce Award Masterlist (YA Cat.), 01 AZ Young Reader Award Masterlist (Teen Bks cat.), 00-01 Sunshine State Young Reader''s Award Masterlist (Gr. 6-8), 00-01 Black-Eyed Susan Award Masterlist, 00-01 Minnesota''s Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award Masterlist, 00-01 South Carolina Book Award Nomination Masterlist (Grds 6-9), 00-01 Lone Star Reading List, 00-01 Utah Book Award (Gr. 7-12), 01 Washington State Evergreen YA Book Award Masterlist, 00-01 Young Hoosier Book Award Masterlist (Gr. 6-8), and 01 Rebecca Caudill Young Readers'' Book Award Nominee Masterlist

On the last day of a sea kayaking trip in southeast Alaska, fourteen-year-old Andy Galloway paddles away from his group to visit the nearby site where his archaeologist father died trying to solve the mystery of the first Americans. A sudden, violent storm blows Andy''s kayak off course and washes him ashore on Admiralty Island, an immense wilderness known as the Fortress of the Bears. Struggling to survive, Andy encounters a dog running with wolves and then a man toting a stone-tipped spear. The wild man vanishes into the forest, but the dog reappears and leads Andy to a cave filled with Stone Age tools and weapons. Running for his life, Andy retreats deep into the cave, where danger, suspense, and discovery await.

Deep in trouble, Deep in the canyons

Fourteen-year-old Dylan Sands has come all the way from North Carolina to Big Bend National Park, on the Texas/Mexico border, to paddle the fabled Rio Grande. His partner in adventure is a local river rat, his cousin Rio. As the two are packing their boats for ten days in the canyons, six Black Hawk helicopters appear overhead and race across the river into Mexico.

The army won''t tell the boys what''s happening, but they are given a weather advisory: A hurricane is approaching the Gulf of Mexico. Dylan and Rio have their hearts set on their trip and can''t give it up. Rio believes that their chances of running into border troubles or a major storm are slim to none.

By canoe and raft, Dylan and Rio venture into the most rugged and remote reaches of the U.S./Mexico border. You may well not see another human being during the duration of your trip, the guidebook tells them. They don''t, until a man stumbles into camp with a seven-year-old boy. A storm is brewing as the man who calls himself Carlos begs for help . . . and the boy is trembling with fear.

In this fast-paced adventure story set in the Canadian arctic, fifteen-year-old Inuit hunter Nick Thrasher comes face-to-face with a fearsome creature on a routine caribou hunt gone wrong. Part grizzly, part polar bear, this environmental mutant has been pegged the “grolar bear” by wildlife experts. Nick may have escaped this time, but it won’t be his last encounter.

Then Nick’s estranged half-brother, Ryan, offers to take him on a rafting trip down a remote part of the Firth River. But when disaster strikes, the two narrowly evade death. They’re left stranded without supplies—and then the grolar bear appears. Will Hobbs brings his singular style to this suspenseful story about two brothers fighting for survival against the unpredictable—and sometimes deadly—whims of nature.

Rich in adventure, history, and humor, an odyssey set in the twilight of the Wild West spun by Will Hobbs

Weeks after arriving in Colorado to start a new farm, the Hollowell family is looking at disaster when fifteen-year-old Owen witnesses the theft of their mules. Learning that Hercules and Peaches will likely be sold to the mines, Owen sets out to track the rustler over the mountains. It’s all Ma can do to hold back little brother Till, who’s more than a handful.

The outlaw’s trail leads to Telluride, the turbulent “City of Gold.” Owen gets help from a resourceful girl named Molly and dubious assistance from Till, who shows up on the train from Durango.

Telluride’s notorious marshal finally takes an interest when he identifies the rustler as one of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch. The lawman leads Owen and Till on horseback into the canyon country and all the way to Robbers Roost.

For readers who love adventure and humor, Will Hobbs delivers a stirring tale of two brothers who risk it all to recover their mules and secure their future.