Plan B Is Total Panic

Andrew Dewar was a graduate of the journalism program at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto, and on the staff of the North York Public Library.

Nicholas, the hero of Plan B Is Total Panic, feels weak and inadequate when faced with the town bully. He lives in an oil town in northern Alberta, with a father who is disappointed at his lack of interest in sports. Nicholas sees the future as holding nothing more than being a wimp, but when his Dene friend Elvis invites him to go moose hunting with him and his Native grandparents, Nicholas accepts, if only to avoid a showdown with the bully.

From the beginning things seem to be conspiring to show just how wimpy Nicholas is, but when he is faced with a grizzly bear he discovers not that he is suddenly brave, but that he can overcome his fear. And when he finds his friend the town doctor unconscious in his wrecked plane, he is able to keep his head.

Martyn Godfrey has written a number of books for teens, which have ranged in topic from teen problems to science fiction. This book seems very polished and does not overtly deal with the question of courage, which is a change from many young adult novels and their tendency to telegraph messages. Nicholas and Elvis are well developed and believable, and their discovery of themselves is not laid on with a thick brush. They evolve in a reasonable way.

And the lesson, once it is realized, is subtle: Nicholas says “I knew I wouldn’t like doing (those things) and I was right, so why did I do them in the first place?” and Elvis replies: “Just because you’ve got to test it out to know for sure.” Nicholas learns not to think he can’t do things, and facing the bear and helping the doctor are not the only discoveries about himself along the way.