The Booker Rebellion
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Pub Date Nov 20 2026 | Archive Date Nov 28 2026
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Description
The overriding household mantra in the Booker household is: Pay attention. Notice what’s right. Notice what’s wrong. Do what needs to be done.
The Booker siblings — fifteen-year-old Belinda, twelve-year-old Jack and six-year-old Emmy — discover a corpse in the forest near their remote western Oregon home. With their parents away fighting wildfires in Alaska and an aunt they barely know running the household, the kids seem to be on their own as they uncover a secret militia caching weapons in the woods and bent on government sabotage. When their aunt goes missing and a deputy sheriff actively obstructs their effort to find her, the Bookers become targets themselves in a deadly struggle.
But the “Booker Rebellion” has another tale woven through the intrigue, one that reveals how Belinda, Jack and Emmy have become resourceful and self-reliant enough to tackle what comes their way. Free-range kids, they are the offspring of war veterans still serving in the National Guard. Clay and Mimi Booker may be physically absent, but their wisdom whispers through the story. And that withered aunt? She is not what she appears.
A Note From the Publisher
**This is an early review copy and has not been fully edited or formatted for digital readers. Please excuse ay typos or mistakes. They will be fixed in the final version.**
Advance Praise
“A suspenseful wilderness adventure with young heroes worth rooting for.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“The Booker Rebellion is a fresh, exciting adventure, a book that moves as fast and clear as a mountain creek. Susan Palmer knows the landscape of the Oregon Coast Range intimately, and she brings to the page all the beauty and danger of that country in rich detail, without slowing the wild ride for a moment. I couldn’t stop reading.”
—Molly Gloss, award-winning author of The Jump-Off Creek and Wild Life
“A thrill-seeker’s thriller with head-smacking surprises, gritty wisdom, fierce resilience and fiercer love at every turn. The Booker kids, whose National Guard parents are away fighting Alaska wildfires, encounter mysterious strangers infiltrating and profaning the mountainous forests that surround their rural Oregon home. The Booker family mantr —‘Pay attention. Assess. Do what needs doing’—guides their every step. Read this book and get to know the remarkable Booker clan; they’ll be friends for life.”
—Paul Neville, author of The Garbage Brothers
“Palmer expertly crafts a thrilling story starring wilderness-wise kids who navigate a cascading number of life-threatening events as they try to investigate unusual activity in their area of the Coast Mountain Range in Oregon. Superbly drawn characters, nonstop action. Highly recommended.”
—Elizabeth Engstrom, author of The Itinerant
“Palmer is that rare writer who can effortlessly toggle from fragile eco systems to leaping cougars to ornery human beings with no regard for the land, for others and for the law. The Booker Rebellion is a frolicking romp that’s all-engrossing for readers who love a good tale.”
—Bob Welch, author of Seven Summers (And a Few Bummers)
Marketing Plan
National full coverage marketing and publicity plan with MindBuck Media
National full coverage marketing and publicity plan with MindBuck Media
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9798897409020 |
| PRICE | $21.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 258 |
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Average rating from 2 members
Featured Reviews
Kathy W, Reviewer
Besides being a rollicking good, fast-paced thriller, complete with a dead body, caves, a fire, plenty of guns, knives, kidnapping and escapes, The Booker Rebellion explores what it means to be a family in treacherous times. The three Booker children are left with a seemingly severe and uncaring aunt while their parents, Gulf War veterans, are fighting wild fires in Alaska. When threats arise, in the form of a wacky militia training camp in their own woods, they have to depend on each other and the lessons their parents have taught them.
It's two mints in one: The Booker Rebellion belongs on the YA shelf, for sure, but I read it voraciously, and my YA days are fifty years behind me. Intuitively written characters, including a small, beguiling child, three teens, a dog, and a cast of adults who are mostly bad to the bone, except for two aunts, a forest-loving curmudgeon, and a hard-edged but whimsical hippie with magical delusions. Most of the adults are certainly not who we think they are when we first meet them. Palmer applies a deft hand as she doles out their true (and hidden) motivations. Palmer certainly knows her setting, too, taking us deep into the wild Oregon coast range, and not letting us go until, literally, the last page.
I find many "fast reads" are devoid of the yummy stuff. They ask me to give up my interest in a well-written, well-paced, character-driven story in exchange for an exciting plot. Not this one: it weighs in on both scales. I'm hoping for a series with the Bookers. I'm definitely interested in what these engaging kids, and their family, do next.