Jungle of Bones by Ben Mikaelsen (review)

Dylan Barstow is one angry young man, unable to come to terms with the death of his journalist father in Darfur. Acting out has finally brought him to a crossroads—a stint in juvie or an extended stay with his ex-Marine uncle Todd in Oregon. Todd immediately puts Dylan on a training/discipline program involving running (Dylan’s not bad at it), respectful speech (Dylan’s mouthy and resistant), and malaria pills (Dylan flushes them down the toilet) in preparation for a trip to Papua New Guinea to locate the remains of a B-17 bomber that crashed in the jungle in World War II, leaving Dylan’s grandfather as the sole survivor. Of course, every lesson Dylan refuses to learn and precaution he refuses to take becomes another giant step toward disaster in the jungle when he’s separated from his uncle and left isolated and fighting for his life. Readers will readily catch the dual genres of this title—action/adventure story and cautionary tale. The former is more successful, straying off course only when a shape-shifting native rescues Dylan in an act of authorial mercy. The latter is problematic, though, since the moral of this story should demand Dylan’s demise, and Mikaelsen settles instead for a boatload of sermonizing, which even the most well-behaved, self-righteous of readers are likely to find tedious. Still, Dylan’s trainwreck of a life, topped off with a happy ending, may hit the ideal excitement level for a middle-grades quick pick.