Gus is about to get a mouthful of cholla, a horrible spiny cactus that will hook into you and you need pliers to pull it out! Yeah, because of Bo, the resident bully and his lackeys. Gus’ face is getting closer and closer to the nasty stuff when Rossi comes to Gus’ rescue – sort of. Bo is mad because Rossi, a girl, beat him AGAIN in the motor cross bike race. And the next day is the big race, the one that the winner will get a new motorbike and go to camp to learn more about racing bikes. So, Rossi showing up doesn’t really help Gus that much. Until Bo demands Rossi’s bike to let Gus go free, which means that Bo will for sure win the race and the prize. When Rossi agrees to it, Gus can’t believe it. Bo doesn’t deserve to win after all, and he’s such a jerk.
Now Gus is determined to get the bike back for Rossi in the next 24 hours. He goes to Bo 
to beg for the bike back and says he’ll do anything. First mistake. Bo says he wants a piece of gold from Frenchman’s Mine – an old gold mine where people have DIED because of cave ins. Is Gus really going to do this, just to get back Rossi’s bike? Sure looks that way. But how can Gus get gold out of a gold mine where anyone who has gone in it last 100 years has died?
24 Hours in Nowhere by Dusti Bowling is a great book. It is funny and keeps the story moving right along. It takes an impossible situation and finds the humor in it and life when things seem so bad, there can’t possibly be anything to laugh at.
Recommended for grades 6 and up.
