Jackie Hunter said she began writing short stories and poems when she was twelve years old. Over a thirty years career, she taught middle school math and science and worked as an elementary school administrator.
Her debut novel, Lost in the Red Hills of Mars, is about a thirteen years old girl who lives in the first human colony on Mars. Ms. Hunter wrote this book because she remembered how excited her students were when they were asked to design a human colony for Mars.
She grew up in Richmond, Virginia and holds a Masters of Education from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has a lifetime membership in the National Parent and Teacher Association. She now divides her time between Richmond, Virginia and Suwanee, Georgia, where her daughter Ramirra and son-in-law, Jerry Stackhouse maintain a home.
Lost in the Red Hills of Mars by Jackie Hunter
Thirteen-year-old Celine Red Cloud’s world is confined to the Compound, the tiny underground community that represents humanity’s first foothold on Mars. There she lives with a hundred other colonists, including her parents.
Celine’s mother hates Mars and makes no secret of it. As for Mr. Red Cloud, the Cherokee geologist left Earth to escape a past he’d rather forget. Living with one parent who’d give anything to leave Mars and one who sees the red planet as a new start causes some strain in Celine’s home life, but right now family tension is the last thing on her mind—her father has gone missing.
Lost in a skin-scouring Martian sandstorm, Mr. Red Cloud is presumed dead by the little colony. Only Celine holds out hope he somehow survived. Together with Alex, a young clone desperate to gain his own father’s approval, Celine sets out to hunt for her father among the gullies and canyons of Mars. To succeed, she’s going to have to face local wildlife, a deadly environment, and every challenge Mars can throw at her.
Lost in the Red Hills of Mars ties together family devotion, self-reliance, and survival in a rousing adventure story.
KIRKUS Review: “A well-paced, diverting Mars-survival adventure…”
Compared to Ray Bradbury.
