Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Wildfire: Code Red
Fiction Series
For ages 12 and up
Random House UK, 2010 ISBN: 978-1862301665
Ben Tracey is delighted that he is going to be able to spend his February half term vacation in Australia instead of in cold and wet England. His mother is in Adelaide participating in a conference, and he hopes to spend seven blissful days in the sun on a beach somewhere. When he arrives in Australia, Ben finds out that his mother is unable to meet him straight away. He ends up being taken up in a micro light plane by a young American girl called Kelly. Kelly isn’t too keen having to “baby-sit” a boy several years her junior, but she does so as a favor to Ben’s mother.
Meanwhile, somewhere in Adelaide, a car is stolen and leaflets in the car are set on fire by the young men who stole the car. Wisps of scorched paper are carried away by the hot dry wind, and before anyone really knows what has hit them, fires are breaking out all over Adelaide. Strange and inexplicable wind storms feed the fires and soon huge walls of flame are raging across the city, destroying and killing as they go.
Ben and Kelly desperately try to find their parents in the chaos, and in the process, as they follow a false lead, they discover that they may be something far more sinister going on. Adelaide may not be the only place that could be destroyed.
Armchair adventurers are sure to find this gripping and well written book highly satisfying. Plenty of action, a touch of a conspiracy theory, and a sprinkling of heroes and villains makes this the perfect book to read, especially when escaping ones humdrum life is the goal.
