This book is set in New Zealand in a small forestry run village where Garth and his mates are helping out by pruning branches to raise money for a school trip to Fiji. The team Garth works on consists of his best mate Danny, a fiery blonde Kelsey and a Maori girl called Hinu, all lead by a gruff older forestry worker called Max. Whenthe team comes across 2 quad bikers hooning around the forest, disaster happens when one bike tips over and the petrol tank explodes causing a bushfire. One of the bikers, Isaac, is forced to flee the flames with the team despite being the cause of the fire. Although this was an exciting story, I thought some of the tactics were questionable ( especially in the wake of the Black Saturday bushfires) - the team leave their vechile and race through the forest ahead of the flames. They also leave the safety of a river gorge - I couldn't quite grasp why they had to; surely the fire would have swept over the top and they would have been safe in the water or dug into the cliff face. Nevertheless, it was a gripping story and not a bad read for under 120 pages in length.

Thoroughly enjoyed - got really suspenseful towards the end. Recommend for Year 7/8. ( )