This book was recommended by our school librarian, and I gave it a rating of four out of five. An earthquake hits Missouri, while the president and his son are visiting Camp David. Camp David is a private residence for presidents located in Maryland wilderness. The president returns to the White House, but a forest fire overtakes the area around Camp David, endangering everyone left. The secret service attempts to get the president's son, Luke, and two of his friends to safety, but the fire spreads too quickly through the drought-ravaged grass and trees. All of the bodyguards are injured, so Luke and his friends must escape on their own. Camp David's security system against terrorist attacks complicates the situation. The first part of the book took longer to get to the major conflict than necessary; it took almost one hundred pages before the characters realized a forest fire was close by. How is it possible for a forest fire to get within a mile of the presidential compound before the secret service or park rangers notice? The kids are the first ones to see smoke. However, the action was pretty constant throughout the last two-thirds of the plot. The kids battled injuries, fire, heat, smoke, electric fences, and other obstacles as they found themselves surrounded by danger. Several times, Luke thought he had the solution to get rescued, but something wrong always happened. He finally changed his father's motto from meeting obstacles head on to always having a back-up plan. The first third of the book was interesting, but the action in the last two-thirds of the book was entertaining.
Lexile level from lexile.com 690
I must have been so intrigued to be behind the scenes at Camp David that I didn't realize how slow the first part was.
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