Books with author John Downs

Jim, Julia, and Marcel get in over their heads when Jim and Marcel’s boat washes ashore on an island that’s abandoned…or is it?Teenagers Jim and Julia don’t know they are in for the adventure of a lifetime as they travel to Turks and Caicos to help Julia’s father survey the endangered coral reefs. Their explorations lead them to North Caico Island where they discover and befriend Marcel, a young Haitian refugee.While the friends are fishing off the island’s reef one day, a fierce storm blows in and takes Jim and Marcel on a treacherous three-day voyage out to sea. As their food and water run out, the teenagers spot a barren island―Hogsty Reef―with a grounded tanker rusting off shore, where they seek shelter.While searching for food, Jim and Marcel discover that Hogsty Reef is actually not abandoned, but a hideaway for drug dealers and their illegal drug money. While Julia works tirelessly to rescue Jim and Marcel, the boys must find a way to escape without alerting the drug runners, and survive the many dangers of Hogsty Reef in this suspenseful ecological adventure story.

In this sequel to Hogsty Reef, teenagers Jim and Julia reunite, getting embroiled in a search for a missing naturalist as they work in a research station studying endangered wildlife.While in the Turks and Caicos Islands, these two inquisitive teens’ quest leads them directly into the hands of poachers who have ravaged the island’s precious fauna and intend to sell them in the black market of endangered and threatened animals.Jim, Julia, and their new friend Miles get capture with the animals and smuggled to the Dominican Republic just as a hurricane blows in. How will they escape their captors and the deadly storm? Will they be able to stop the poaching operation?With one eye on a twisting and turning plot line and the other on a message concerning the importance of conservation and ecological balance, John Dowd will teach and delight readers.