Outback (Orca Soundings)

Since his girlfriend dumped him, Jayden has been avoiding school-and life in general.

When his eccentric uncle Mel invites him to help with his biology research at an Australian university, he figures he has nothing to lose. Once he arrives, he discovers Mel is obsessed with finding a new species of lizard and is determined to be the first to discover it. Unfortunately, this means an expedition into the scorching desert heat of the Australian outback...with the increasingly paranoid Mel and an unfriendly biology student named Natalie. Then disaster strikes, and Jayden and Nat find themselves many miles from civilization fighting for their survival.

This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading level book for teen readers who are building reading skills, want a quick read or say they don’t like to read! Available in Spanish as Desolación.

Robin Stevenson is the award-winning author of more than thirty-five books of fiction and non-fiction for kids and teens, including the picture books Pride Puppy, Pride Colors and A Hug on the Wind, and the novel The Book of Jupiter. Her books have won the Silver Birch Award, the Sheila A. Egoff award and a Stonewall Honor, and been finalists for the Governor General’s Literary Awards, the Lambda Literary Awards and many reader’s choice awards. Her work has been translated and published in more than ten countries, including Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Korea, Japan and Vietnam. Robin was the Book and Periodical Council of Canada’s Champion of Free Expression for 2022. In 2023, she was awarded the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence. She is also a co-founder of Canadian Authors and Illustrators Against Book Bans. She has degrees in philosophy and social work, and worked for ten years as a social worker and counsellor before becoming a full-time writer. Robin lives on the west coast of Canada with her family.