Survivor Girl

Gr 3-6–Twelve-year-old Ali idolizes her reality TV survivalist father and wants to be just like him. When she gets the opportunity to join him in the Great Dismal Swamp, Ali is terrified she won’t survive until she arrives and sees that the reality of television is not all it appears. Parent-child relationships, self esteem, and the value of truth and honesty are at the forefront of this adventure story. Ali’s character is relatable and realistic; tween girls will see their struggles with body image, their parents, and fitting in. The other characters are not as fully developed as Ali, but they work well to support the issues in the story. While the book ends with an exciting survival scene, it takes a while to build up to the adventure and some of the events surrounding the falsehood of the reality TV show could have been cut to speed the pace.