A Wilderness Survival Adventure
- The Firefly Warriors Club
- Off the Rails - A Wilderness Survival Adventure
Just because your cousin jumps from a train in the wilderness doesn’t mean you should too.
After planning a fun experience for a year, two Texas cousins make their first trip to Montana. When their train stalls, the boys leap from it into the white wilderness, beginning a perilous run for their lives.
As a blizzard hits, the boys spend a miserable night trying not to freeze. They hike along the tracks, but when the tiny hut they find burns to the ground, they’re left exposed again to the elements and every famished wild creature.
Frustrated by their too real situation, Davy and Anderson struggle to endure. Instead of vacationers at a wolf sanctuary, they become players in an unplanned survival experience.
Imprint: Hastings Creations Group
Editors:
Genres:
Anderson unzipped his pack and showed Davy his stash of snacks. “Skittles, and sour gummies.”
“Mike ate my best stuff. My Snickers!”
“I kept my bag behind my laundry hamper with my stinky-ist underwear on top. My sisters were grossed out.”
“Man, you’re good.”
“I’ve had a lot of practice. Dixie can smell my candy from her room.”
“Oh man. I forgot to get my flashlight back. Mike had it during the tornado warning thing.” Davy retied the laces on his boots and pointed to Anderson’s shoes. “You’re not wearing those?”
Anderson reached under the seat, dragged out his boots and wrenched off his sneakers. “Not freezing off my toes!”
READ MOREThe next hour blurred as they rushed through the process and got to the plane’s gate. Davy didn’t relax until the plane’s wheels lifted off the runway. They would get there, spend the night and catch the train in the morning. They would meet up with Pops and head off to The Wolf Sanctuary—just like they planned. Everything was going perfectly. Nothing could go wrong now, except Anderson. He always managed to make something go wrong.
Davy closed his eyes to wait for it and sighed.
COLLAPSEOff the Rails is a story that will appeal to ages 8-12. Two Texas cousins’ early fascination with wolves, which started with a movie about a man living with them, turns into a too-real encounter as they struggle for survival on levels that films never imparted.
Davy tried to get his parents to hire a guide to take them into the wilderness so they could see wolves up close and personal, but though his trip to Montana seems ruined, he winds up in the adventure he coveted when his impulsive cousin Anderson leaps off a stalled train and into a dangerous situation in response to an animal in distress.
Susan Count embeds her story with not just wilderness adventure, but nature. From grizzlies to woodpeckers and arctic foxes and wolves, the boys face all manner of creatures as they confront wilderness dangers and new challenges.
Though Davy is a Wilderness Scout, he doesn’t know everything about survival. But his training does help as the boys navigate not only the great outdoors and snowy north, but each other.
Count’s focus on their evolving relationship, tested by experiences beyond their ken, makes for a gripping saga that elementary to middle grade readers will find thoroughly engaging.
Elementary-level librarians seeking a vivid story of family connections tested by survival challenges will find Off the Rails a fine recommendation to young readers interested in nature, relationship-building, and survival sagas.
Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Count, Susan, author.
Title: Off the rails, a wilderness survival adventure / Susan Count.
Description:Huntsville, TX: Hastings Creations Group, 2026. | Includes 12 b&w illustrations and diagrams. | Series: Texas Boys Adventures ; 1. | Audience: Ages 8-12. | Summary: After planning a fun experience for a year, two Texas cousins make their first trip to Montana. When their train stalls, the boys leap from it into the white wilderness, beginning a perilous run for their lives. As a blizzard hits, they must endure the elements and wild creatures in an unplanned survival experience.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020903577 | ISBN 978-1-952371-24-0 (hardcover) | ISBN 978-1-952371-23-3 (pbk.) | ISBN 978-1-952371-25-7 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Wilderness survival—Juvenile fiction. | Blizzards—Juvenile fiction. | Cousins—Juvenile fiction. | Adventure and adventurers—Juvenile fiction. | Montana—Juvenile fiction. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Action & Adventure / Survival Stories. | JUVENILE FICTION / Animals / Wolves. | JUVENILE FICTION / Science & Nature / Disasters.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.C68 O34 2026 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020903577