Absolutely incredible read! Love the novel in verse format, and the story is up there with The Honest Truth.

A surprisingly literary survival novel for kids who read and loved books like Hatchet, Julie of the Wolves, or My Side of the Mountain. A ton of emotional depth and a great book to use in a classroom environment when talking about different styles of writing -- free verse and standard narrative.

Absolutely loved this book from Dusti Bowling. I know my students will love the edge of your seat action. It is definitely one that will be read by many middle grade readers.

The Canyon's Edge was a powerful and intense novel in verse that I read in ONE SITTING. I loved that Dusti Bowling decided to write this story in verse and I hope she has more books similar in format in the coming years! Readers will be on the edge of their seats throughout Nora's survival story and will be inspired by her courage and tenacity to make it out of the slot canyon, all while dealing with the demons of her past trauma from the loss of her mom the year before. I added this title to my middle school library collection when it came out, and it has been a very popular book among readers.

I could not put this down.
Life and death decisions.
Canyon dangers I never considered.
Real-life obstacles, and triumphs.

This was totally different than I thought it would be! I thought this was a straight up adventure/survival story. Nope, not quite.
It's more a story of a girl coping with the enormous pain and grief and trauma in the aftermath of her mother's death during a random mass shooting at a restaurant. Her and her father were also there and experienced both the trauma of the event itself and the grief of losing their mom/wife. Life just hasn't been normal since it's happened, and Nora's dad has become a shut in, plagued my panic attacks and not allowing her out of the house, even to school. The only thing they do is explore the desert canyons together, rappelling to the bottom. During a hike on the one year anniversary of the tragedy, disaster strikes-- forcing Nora to survive in the desert alone. The story goes from prose to verse, as Nora's journey out of the canyon mirrors the emotional and mental journey of her grief and depression.
This was beautifully done and interesting to read, but god was it a brutal read. I am personally terrified of being involved in a mass shooting and have had near panic attacks just thinking about it. Reading this difficult, spare story during a time in the world when it's very hard to be hopeful about anything was maybe not the best idea for me! Still, it's a great book, and many people will love it.
It was a very quick read, took me about 90 minutes total. Recommended for grade 6 and up.

1 . This book is told almost entirely by poems.

2. The girl in this book is stranded in a canyon without any supplies. She also has to look or her father whom she was separated from when a flashflood swept through the canyon they were climbing in.

3. As she journeys, memories are revealed about what happened to make her and her father scared of others.

4. This book is also about finding yourself and trying harder to get people back instead of pushing them away.

5. This book is great for kids like me who go a therapist, because the girl in this book goes to a therapist, and like me, she does not like some of the advice she gets.

I am a fan of Dusti Bowling's other books so I was excited for this one. I did not liked this one as much. It started out strong, but I feel like there was event overload as she faces obstacle after obstacle.

Nora and her father are recovering from the traumatic death of her mother. Her father has become overprotective, to the point of not allowing her to be in public. Always an outdoor family, Nora and her parents have always gone exploring, hiking and climbing in the canyons and deserts. As the story opens, Nora and her dad are exploring a slot canyon when a sudden rain causes a flash flood that separates the two. Although Nora understands her father's reasoning for keeping her so sheltered, this event causes her to see that bad, scary things can happen anywhere. Nora must rely on her own knowledge and personal strength to save herself and her father.

I loved the originality of the storyline, but at first I wasn't convinced that telling it in verse was the right format. It felt a bit "rocky" (pun intended!) to me. I eventually got into the rhythm of the words and found this to be a very good story. The poetic format did help express Nora's pain, trauma and fear far more than regular prose would have. This is a great story for kids who liked Gary Paulsen's "Hatchet," and one of Bowling's other books, "24 Hours in Nowhere." Bowling has had two books in the past two years on Missouri's state reading award list for upper elementary/middle grade books, and I am betting she will go 3 for 3 with this one.

A powerful, heart-thumping story about survival and the inner strength it takes to reclaim life after trauma. Few will ever have to face the physical challenges Nora must survive in the desert, but many will know her inner battles with trauma all too well. And Nora shows us that it's possible to emerge stronger than we've ever been before.

Thank you Little Brown Books and NetGalley for sharing this book with me in exchange for an honest review. I DEVOURED this book in almost one sitting. It was intense. Beautiful. Gripping. Mysterious. Powerful. Emotional. Oh so much packed into this verse novel.

Nora and her family were just supposed to be on a wilderness vacation. It was going to be their time to forget all the tragedy that has happened to them since their mother's death. But when a flash flood washes Nora's father away, Nora is now in a huge struggle to just survive in the desert. Dusti Bowling does a beautiful job of building the pain and tension of this story. Readers will be hooked.

I loved this book! When I first read the description, I thought this was going to be a simple adventure story, but it turned out to be so much more. It's truly an emotional journey of overcoming not just physical challenges, but mental ones too. .As a parent of two avid climbers and a lover of the desert west, I could appreciate the physical and environmental challenges Nora faced in the slot canyon., The sudden and tragic loss of Nora's mother was just heartbreaking and being separated from her father in the canyon made it all the more so. I didn't expect the book to have such an emotional punch, but so glad it did! Its slim length and novel in verse style make it very accessible for middle grade readers. Highly recommend.

Beautiful language. This will fit in well with other middle grade to YA novels in verse. My only concern is that it might be too scary for my middle grade readers. But the writing is lovely.

The quintessential story of survival as a catalyst for dealing with grief. Our protagonist is still trying to come to terms with the violent death of her mother a year on, neither she nor her father truly dealing with their trauma. So of course an outside force intervenes and pushes away all of their simple concerns. This is a pair exceptionally prepared for their trip. But much like their grief, a sudden and unavoidable situation alters their course. As an almost exclusively internal conflict, it's well suited to the verse novel format.

Written in verse, this is a heart-wrenching, heart-stopping, suspenseful adventure with lyrical, figurative language about an intense journey of physical hardship and emotional healing.

Shifting perspectives between before and after her mom was shot, Nora and her dad climb into a Sonoran Desert canyon for the first time in the year since her mom died.

Just as Nora tells her father she hates him, a flash flood careens through the canyon, carrying her father and their supplies away.

Alone and terrified, Nora forces herself to find shelter and keep searching for her father, even with the venom from a scorpion bite slowing her down.

As she faces her fears and continues on, she overcomes a metaphorical war with the "beast" who has been giving her nightmares for the past year.

When Nora and her father set out for a day trip exploring the canyon they didn't imagine they were setting out to begin an epic journey for survival in an unforgiving desert. Nora didn't imagine they would come face to face with deadly creatures, nor that she would come face to face with her nightmares. A lonely canyon and deadly desert are only part of the pain Nora feels as she comes to terms with her past and the wounds of her heart.

[4.5/5] One year after her mother is killed by a random shooter, Nora and her father are still tormented by fear and anger. For her birthday, they take a rock climbing trip to a canyon in the Arizona desert. Their family has always been the adventurous sort: traveling, hiking and climbing, and learning about the natural world around them.

But when a flash flood in the canyon carries her father away, Nora must find the will to survive alone in the harsh climate of the unforgiving desert.

The Canyon's Edge is a quick read that packs an emotional punch. I read it in one sitting. In fact, I don't even remember coming up for air the entire time, it was so engrossing.

I loved the simple, lovely writing in this YA story. It's very poetic - which makes sense, since most of it's written in different forms of verse.

The desert setting was as brutal as it was beautiful. I couldn't help but root for Nora as she grappled with both inner turmoil (over the tragic loss of her mother) and exterior adversaries like poisonous snakes and dehydration.

So unique, raw, and gripping, The Canyon's Edge is well worth the read. Highly recommended, especially for fans of wilderness survival stories like Hatchet!

**Thanks to Little Brown Books for Young Readers for the gifted ARC

Wow. I will be processing this book for a while. Incredibly powerful story of a girl overcoming serious trauma while fighting for her life. The poetry is gorgeous and I can’t wait to get my hands on a print copy.

Answer these questions: What makes this book different from all others? And why should anyone care? I really liked the author's first book, The Insignificant Events in the life of a Cactus. This book had a similar feeling while I was reading. You really cared about the main character and you wanted her to overcome her problems. Nora goes on a hiking trip one year after her mom was killed in a shooting at a restaurant. Throughout the novel, you see Nora still going through her grief process. Nora gets separated from her father and you can see her grow and become stronger as a character as the novel is also written in verse. I really enjoyed this story and would love to read the book once it is printed to be able to see how the poems are laid out in the book. I know things look different in an ebook.