Cheating Fate.

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

While riding a pair of snowmobiles in BC’s Cariboo area on April 3, four grade nine students go through the lake ice. Despite the quartet’s being submerged in the cold water for some time, all are rescued and recover without any effects. Dubbed “The Miracle Teens,” Cassidy Sampson, Jeremy Kendall, Kyle Aspen, and Sukhwinder Sangera have been best friends since kindergarten.

However, in the fall, when Kyle initiates a conversation about the accident, he learns they have all been harbouring an accident-related secret. While “drowning,” each experienced flashbacks, with Kyle and Jeremy also “seeing” names, including the quartet’s, in a “book.” After Cass and Sukh confirm that these names are also familiar to them, Kyle researches the first three names and discovers they were killed in an April 3rd auto accident. Kyle’s conclusion is that the friends were not to die on that particular day, but their names being in the book signifies that they will die together, along with the two strangers whose names shared their page.

The others initially discount Kyle’s conclusion until a serious school bus accident motivates them to stop tempting fate and, instead, to try to cheat fate by breaking up. Drawing straws creates friendship dyads: Cass with Kyle and Jeremy with Sukh. Even though Pfitzenmaier relocates Jeremy and Sukh to Vancouver and Burnaby, readers know that the friends must eventually reunite. Delightfully playing her audience, Pfitzenmaier will leave readers talking about the book’s ending. Highly recommended.