The book that I chose to read is called “96 Miles”. This book was written by J.L. Esplin. Growing up in a family of six children, her dad was a U.S. Secret Service agent, and was passionate about emergency preparedness. Growing up, her dad would tell her what to do during emergencies. They had food and water storage that took up half of the garage and emergency backpacks with survival gear in their hall closet. This is what inspired her to write this book. The book takes place in Nevada. The main characters are two brothers John and Stewart Lockwood. Stewart is eleven years old, and John is thirteen years old in the book. A power outage happens across the U.S., and many supplies become very scarce because of the power outage. This leads to a challenge the Lockwood brothers must face.

          The brothers had many supplies however, an armed man robs them. This leaves the brothers with no choice but to walk 96 miles to one of their friends ranch with the very few supplies they have. These brothers have three days to walk across the Nevada desert or else they could lose their lives due to the heat. This was just the beginning of their journey. As if things couldn’t get worse Stewart is diabetic. His insulin supply was ruined when the generator was taken and the refrigerator lost power. After a few days without insulin, Stew’s body will go into diabetic ketoacidosis, which is fatal. This urges the brothers to make their way across the desert. Unfortunately for the brothers, they had many obstacles to face such as scorching heat, lack of water, limited food, harsh winds, and the physical strain of walking a long distance on foot.

         This book shares a realistic situation that could happen to many people during a power outage. I would really recommend this book to you then. This book honestly deserves a lot more recognition because I feel like modern books don’t have a good plot like this book. My favorite quote in the book is, “I avoided looking at him directly—maybe I didn’t think it was a big deal to turn our state flag into a curtain for my bedroom window, but my dad did. And there was nothing worse than the feeling that I’d disappointed him.” This quote shows how John realized that he must take care of his little brother, Stewart, like how his father took care of him. I give this book a ten out of ten. It perfectly displays a situation that could happen in the real world.