• Age: 9 to 12
• Grade: 4 to 7
• Reading age: 9 to 12

Shortlisted for the Canadian Library Association's Book of the Year for Children Award

Becky and her family are traveling to their cabin in the Yukon mountains, and Becky is driving her own dog team for the first time. Can they make the journey before the ice breaks up? And what will happen if Becky's lead dog, Ginger, has her pups before they reach the cabin?

Breaking Trail is a sharply written adventure novel set in a little-known and still-wild part of North America. Most of all it's a story about the special bond between a girl and her dogs -- a bond that gives her the courage, skill and maturity to face other challenges in her life.

Born in Great Britain, Joanne Bell grew up in New Brunswick and Alberta. She visited Dawson City, Yukon, many years ago and fell in love with the nearby Ogilvie Mountains, where she spent years running dogs, hiking, canoeing and living in log cabins. Now married with two daughters, she works as a naturalist in the summers and is a substitute teacher in Dawson City whenever she is not in the mountains. She spends as much time as possible in her log cabin about twenty miles from the Dempster Highway.

Joanne Bell's profile page

• Short-listed, CLA Book of the Year for Children Award

...a solid addition to most teen library collections.

Kliatt

The book is full of evocative descriptions of outdoor life, written by someone who has loved it and who knows it.

Whitehorse Star

...an appealing story for animal lovers.

School Library Journal

...destined to be a favourite among young readers interested in the Canadian north.

Canadian Children's Literature - CBRA