Ashanti – Is excited that her mum has said yes to a sleepover at her friend’s house. The truth is Ashanti and her two friends are planning a sleepover all right, but in an empty apartment of her friend Maddie’s grandmother. They plan a night of staying up late, eating junk food and watching old black and white movies together. She can’t believe her bad luck when she comes down with a stomach bug.

Freddy – Lives with his grandmother who wants him to concentrate on his schoolwork more than his passion of film making. Both film aficionados, she understands how he sees everything as a film and constantly compares real life to film scenes or scenarios.

Harmony – Still reeling from her father’s betrayal, she focuses on her dream of being a journalist instead. Her media studies class is her favourite and its teacher the same. Helping her mother as much as she can since her dad left, she also cares for her little sister Pax.

Grandin – is from a ranch where he is his father’s right hand man. He loves nothing more than working the land, looking after animals and impressing his dad.

These four meet at an evacuation facility after they are ordered to leave their homes and belongings due to an imminent threat. At first it’s frightening and they do exactly as the soldiers say. Grandin’s father however won’t toe the line and when he vanishes from the crowd, Grandin is left worrying about him.

Ashanti wants to help her mother with patients requiring medical treatment and follow her dream of becoming a doctor herself.

Harmony decides to record everything that’s happening – even if it has to all be by hand, and Freddy is filming as soon as the evacuations begin. But as the days, weeks , months and finally years pass, they are questioning the entire process. Is there a threat or not?

The sequel to award winning Alone, Away shows the other side of the story. Alone is one girl being left behind as her entire state is evacuated, and Away portrays Maddie’s friend Ashanti and others piled onto transports and whisked away to a guarded facility.

Less of a survival story like Alone, Away is more about young teens asking questions to learn about what is happening to them. At first they believe what they are told about a contamination threat, but then things don’t add up. The adults around them are just trying to build interim lives while they wait to go home again, allowing this small group to plan for their real futures.

Away is a verse novel in different points of view.

Author – Away

Age – 11+

(2025, Aladdin, Sequel, Duology, Companion Novel, Verse Novel, Mystery, Crisis, Survival, Mass Evacuation, Friendship, Discovery, Questions, Answers, Lies, Truth, Puppy, Colorado, Conspiracy, Military, Martial Law, Film maker, Journalist, Medical student, Compound, Under guard, Impending Threat, Loss of communication, Series, Secret)