Thirty Miles of Nothing

A year ago, five friends fell apart in a single night, and only four of them walked away from it. Now Teddy’s mother has mailed each survivor a green notebook, a route across the Great Plains, and a deadline. Mari, Dev, Imani and Jonah have eight days, four bikes and no cars to ride four hundred miles in his memory. There is heat, wind, a stretch of road with no water for thirty miles, and one voicemail Mari has never dared to play. Some things can’t be fixed with a wrench.

Ages 13–16. Readers pick up real bike repair (patching tubes, truing a wheel, fixing a chain), how to spot and treat heat exhaustion, how shortgrass and tallgrass prairie survive drought and fire, and how forgiveness works when no one is entirely innocent.