Mysteries in Our National Parks

December 1, 2003
Gr 4-7-In this 12th book in the series, Jack and Ashley Landon are once again in a life-or-death situation. Thirteen-year-old Nicky Milano has joined the Landons on their trip to Denali National Park in Alaska. What the siblings don't know is that he is in the Witness Protection Program and has a "hit" out on him, to prevent him from telling secrets he learned from his mobster father. Together the three young people must deal with an assassin on a dogsled, an avalanche, and carbon-monoxide poisoning. A must-have for fans of the series (originally called the "National Parks Mystery" series), the book also stands alone as a suspenseful survival story.-Yapha Nussbaum Mason, Brentwood Lower School, Los Angeles

Copyright 2003 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2003
When their parents are summoned to Alaska's Denali National Park to investigate wolverine deaths, siblings Jack and Ashley, along with the family's troubled foster child Nicky, accompany them. An attempted abduction and an avalanche are among the dangers the kids deal with in a formulaic mystery that emphasizes regional color over a lukewarm plot and characterizations.

(Copyright 2003 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)