Thirst (Lizzie Wilcock, Scholastic)

Karanda is on her way to her sixth foster home when a car crash leaves her stranded in the middle of the desert, her only company fellow foster child Solomon. Deciding that this is her opportunity to flee the system and build a new life for herself, Karanda heads deeper into the desert … only to have her bid for independence hampered by Solomon, who insists on tagging along. Between finding food and water and surviving the trials of the desert, Karanda learns that relying on another person isn’t the worst thing she could do. Karanda and Solomon are difficult characters to connect with. Karanda is angry, selfish and cruel, while Solomon is distant, hard to understand and unbelievably knowledgeable about desert foods for an eight-year-old. While the elements of the story that focused on their survival were interesting, and their slowly-revealed backgrounds in the foster system heartbreaking, the circumstances surrounding the story were a little difficult to swallow. I would recommend this to younger YA readers who will enjoy a good survival story and may not question the finer points of believability.

Meg Whelan is the children’s book buyer at the Hill of Content Bookshop in Melbourne