Dylan loves the family farm, helping on the land and planning to train his sheepdog puppy Megs to become a champion. His dreams are shattered however when his parents’ near certain deal to buy the farm is overturned by a better offer from a multi-national company who want to grow moss on the land. Furthermore, his classmate Floyd’s dad is a scientist with the company, but when he tries to talk him about it, he discovers that both he and Floyd’s younger brother have failed to return from a trip to Brazil, and that there has been no contact from them. Despite not being particularly good friends, they devise a plan to fly to Salvador and bring back Floyd’s brother, and are plunged into a dangerous adventure in the heart of the Amazon, unsure of who to trust.
This is a very mature and timely novel for young readers, encompassing a range of important issues that chime with adults and children alike. Dylan and Floyd are entangled in an unfamiliar world where human life and environmental destruction are secondary to corporate greed and individual ambition, and companies with commendable ideals are too big to control what is happening at grass roots level. Poverty and social injustice are brought into sharp focus by Dylan’s encounter with a group of street children and the determined and resourceful Lucia, who has taught herself English from a thesaurus, and whose fierce love for her abducted puppy drives her to help him. The main characters are propelled into action by compassion for animals and other people, loyalty and the compulsion to do what they believe to be right.
This is an absorbing, thought-provoking novel and a thrilling and satisfying adventure story.