Avalanche Dog Heroes: Piper and Friends Learn to Search the Snow - Hardcover

by Elizabeth Rusch (Author)

Junior Library Guild Selection
2020 Towner Book Award Finalist
Oregon Spirit Award Honor Book

Follow Piper the border collie and her canine classmates through a season of avalanche rescue training. As they learn the skills they need to become snow rescue dogs, you'll learn about the work these amazing canines do and about avalanche safety.

Avalanche Dog Heroes is a nonfiction picture book illustrated with stunning, adorable photography that draws parallels between kids' experiences in elementary school and the training days of the avalanche rescue dogs of Crystal Mountain, Washington State's largest ski resort, located in the Cascade Range.

Follow along with Piper, a friendly border collie who came to the mountain as a smart but timid shelter dog, terrified by everything, as she confidently heads off to school on a chairlift to meet her canine classmates. Over a season they romp together through the snow, learning and practicing the skills they need to be avalanche rescue dogs and earn their rescue certification.

You'll also learn the warning signs and conditions that cause an avalanche, the four types of avalanches, and the basics of avalanche safety.

Author Biography

ELIZABETH RUSCH has published more than 100 magazine articles for children and adults and 10 award-winning books for young readers, including Ready, Set . . . Baby!; Volcano Rising; Eruption!: Volcanoes and the Science of Saving Lives; and Electrical Wizard: How Nikola Tesla Lit Up the World. Her work has been honored by the Junior Library Guild, ALA, School Library Journal, Kirkus, NBC News, the Oregon Book Award, Washington Reads, and the New York Public Library. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband, two terrific kids, and one very funny, quirky dog named Reba.