Fire and Flood by Victoria Scott - ADVISABLE

Scott, Victoria  Fire and Flood (Fire and Flood, #1), 305 pgs.  Scholastic Press, 2014.  $17.99  Content: Language: R (56 swears; 3 “F”); Mature Content: PG-13; Violence: PG-13.   

Tella’s brother is dying and she is her family’s only chance of finding a cure.  Tella has to enter into a game where she competes with other kids for the cure.  There are four environments that they have to survive through and in this book she competes in the desert and rain forest.  As Tella tries to find people to join with as a team, she also finds someone she cares about and someone who becomes an enemy.  Tella begins to understand that this game has been going on for a long time and might be the reason her brother is sick in the first place.   

I loved this book-it pulled me in from the beginning and I couldn’t put it down.  If you like Hunger Games or the show Survivor, then you will get into this storyline.  Although the book is intense, the main character is funny and I found myself laughing out loud.  The violence is pretty gory.  I was frustrated by the “F” word because middle school readers would totally get into this series and it moves the book from essential to advisable.   

MS-OPTIONAL, HS-ADVISABLE.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.