Informational Resources:

Author Information:

Dusti Bowling Website & Biography: https://www.dustibowling.com/

Activities & Resources:

Poetry

Listen to three poems from The Canyon’s Edge (3:44): https://youtu.be/2oY2ohuLHmM

Choose an object and write a concrete poem: https://www.poetry4kids.com/lessons/how-to-write-a-concrete-poem/#:~:text=Concrete%20poetry%E2%80%94sometimes%20also%20called,as%20through%20their%20literal%20meaning.

Floods

Learn about rain and floods: https://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-rain.htm#:~:text=A%20flash%20flood%20is%20sudden,and%20can%20be%20quite%20destructive.

Learn how floods are formed: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/science/flood/

Flash flood facts: https://kids.kiddle.co/Flash_flood

Flooding explained (4:05): https://youtu.be/udRNUBHbE0o

Why do floods happen? (3:41): https://youtu.be/Qe350nm_odA

Slot Canyons

Inside a slot canyon in Arizona (8:11): https://youtu.be/t4nM1FoUqYs

Climbing

11 year old climber (8:34): https://youtu.be/5P5akoQ_eNI

Everything you will need to rock climb (5:21): https://youtu.be/ILdqIRnQxCw

Grief & Loss

Grief drawing activity: https://www.scholastic.com/snp/childrenandgrief-9.htm

MakerSpace Activities:

Create sand art similar to the waves you would see in the rocks of a slot canyon: https://kinderart.com/art-lessons/crafts/layered-sand-jars/

Using iMovie, WeVideo, or another video recording app, record a lesson about the vegetation found in the deserts of Arizona.

Brainstorm and prototype a multi-use tool that would help an individual if they were caught in a flash flood.

Create a PSA for how to stay safe during a flash flood.

Discussion Questions:

The book opens with the main character describing where she is headed as, “the place where no one can find us” (p 1). What does she mean by this description?

When Nora tells her dad, “I think we have everything,” she says she feels like it is a lie (p 2). Why does she feel this way?

Why is Nora scared when she sees her father’s flare gun? How do you feel when you see something that is scary or scares you?

What does Nora mean when she says she would “feel” a nightmare after waking up?

Why is writing poetry important to Nora? How does writing poetry help?

Why does Nora refuse to share her poetry with her father? How do you feel when you have to share your writing with other people?

Why is Nora excited to be climbing and exploring a slot canyon? What are some things you like to do that make you feel excited or happy?

Nora’s father is injured but still wants to rappel down to the bottom of the canyon. Why is he so “determined” and “defiant” about getting to the bottom of the canyon? How does Nora feel about her dad climbing injured?

Nora tells herself, “don’t leave until you’re calm. Facing fear is a skill that must be learned” (p 18). Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?

Why is Nora’s birthday a difficult day for her and her father? How do they handle this difficult day?

When the flash flood suddenly appears the author changes the format of the story to verse. Why does she change the style of the writing?

What does Nora’s dad do when the flood carries him away? What do his actions tell you about his experience in slot canyons?

What does Nora think about when she is alone in the desert? Will the thoughts help her or hinder her from finding her dad?

Why does Nora keep thinking about the night her mom was killed? How does that memory relate to what she is going through in the slot canyon?

What does Nora mean when she says, “so I build my wall” (p 77)?

Who is the “beast” Nora keeps seeing? What does the “beast” represent?

What does Nora have to deal with while she is searching for her father? What is motivating her to keep going?

What happens when Nora is stung by a scorpion? Would you react like Nora? Why?

Why is Nora finally able to defeat the “beast?” Do you think the “beast” is defeated for good? Why or why not?

Why did Nora’s mom call her Blackbird? When does Nora feel like a Blackbird?

Why is the relationship with Danielle so important to Nora? Why does Nora keep thinking about their friendship when she is looking for her father?

Book Talk Teasers:

Watch the TBA book trailer for The Canyons edge

Read the Readers Theater for The Canyons Edge.

Read Alikes:

Survival

Gemeinhart, Dan. The Honest Truth. A boy named Mark, tired of being sick with cancer, conceives a plan to climb Mount Rainier, and runs away from home with his dog, Beau--but with over two hundred miles between him and his goal, and only anger at his situation to drive him on nothing will be easy, and only his best friend, Jessie, suspects where he is heading. (Novelist Plus)

Lambert, Mary E. Distress Signal. Lavender and the rest of the sixth-graders are on a camping trip to the Chiricahua wilderness, but the trip seems cursed from the start, and when a flash flood splits the group up Lavender finds herself lost, together with her three other classmates--they have only one pack of supplies and only the most basic wilderness knowledge. (Novelist Plus)

Philbrick, W.R. (W. Rodman). Wildfire. Twelve-year-old Sam Castine is at summer camp while his mother is in rehab, but when the camp is evacuated ahead of a fast moving wildfire, he makes the mistake of going back for his phone, and finds himself left behind, disoriented, and running for his life. (Novelist Plus)

Grief & Loss

Appelt, Kathi. Maybe a Fox. An otherworldly fox is born to help eleven-year-old Jules, who is grieving over the death of her sister. (Novelist Plus)

Gemeinhart, Dan. The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise. Twelve-year-old Coyote and her father rush to Poplin Springs, Washington, in their old school bus to save a memory box buried in a park that will soon be demolished. (Novelist Plus)

Maschari, Jennifer. The Remarkable Journey of Charlie Price. A boy must rescue his sister after she finds and wants to stay in an almost-world beneath her bed, where their mother is still alive. (Novelist Plus)

Reviews:

The Canyon’s Edge. Bowling, Dusti. Little Brown. 2020.

Booklist

The Canyon’s Edge (Starred)

Bowling, Dusti (author)

Sept. 2020. 240p. Little, Brown, $16.99 (9780316494694). Grades 4-7.

REVIEW. First published August 2020 (Booklist).

Life can change in an instant, a fact that Nora knows all too well. It’s a year since the tragedy that stole her mother, and, like clockwork, another accident strikes, this time while Nora is hiking in a remote Sonoran Desert canyon with her father. A flash storm sends a deluge of water down the canyon’s dry

riverbed, carrying away Nora’s father in its strong current. As Nora fights waves of panic, her harrowing tale of survival unfolds through a mix of free-verse and concrete poetry. Flashbacks and nightmares fill in details about her mother’s death and the PTSD it imprinted on the lives of Nora and her father. Nora is an experienced outdoorswoman, but the storm washed away her pack of supplies, leaving her with only her ingenuity. Determined to find her father, she begins to walk and rock climb in the direction that he disappeared. Her physical struggles—hunger and thirst, sunburned and scraped skin—are intercut with internal ones, blending her journey through grief with her current plight in the canyon. Bowling’s (Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus, 2017) spare writing packs a powerful wallop, and the tense blurring of reality and nightmare effectively conveys Nora’s semi-hallucinatory state. Yet Nora finds ways to overcome the frightening obstacles before her, resulting in a triumphant story of healing and bravery. — Julia Smith

Reprinted with Permission of Booklist https://www.booklistonline.com/

School Library Journal starred (August 1, 2020)

Gr 4-7-Since the fateful day her mother was killed one year ago, Nora and her father have continually withdrawn further from society. Protecting their memories is how they've endured. While burying emotions seems to be Nora's strength, a hiking trip in Arizona's Sonoran Desert is about to change everything. A flash flood leaves Nora alone at the bottom of a canyon; no father, no supplies, and very little hope. If she's going to make it out alive, Nora must put her survival skills to the test and not only survive the desert, but face personal demons. Bowling delivers a poignant depiction of a young girl dealing with anxiety and PTSD. Bookended by narrative, the text transofrms seamlessly to verse in the middle (when Nora is alone in the canyon) to intensely convey Nora's thoughts and feelings. The continued struggle over her mother's death plays into her strife in the desert through flashbacks of therapy sessions from the past year. Forced to be alone with her thoughts, Nora battles what it means to survive versus what it means to live. As she gradually succeeds in getting out of the canyon, Nora realizes that a person is not defined by one moment, but rather, their resilience and growth over time. VERDICT For readers who bloomed under Leza Lowitz's Up From the Sea or Jasmine Warga's Other Words for Home, this emotionally resonant survival tale is a must-have.-Emily Walker, Lisle Lib. Dist., IL © Copyright 2020. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Reprinted with permission from School Library Journal, 2020. http://www.slj.com.