Tyler Manning thought he was having a bad day when he choked in the finals of the state speech team competition, causing his team to lose. But on their ride back from the tournament, the team bus breaks down in the middle of the Arizona desert, right as a massive dust storm decides to head their way, its menacing black cloud rolling toward them at twenty-five miles per hour. Miles from the nearest town, the students secure the bus windows and huddle down inside, preparing for the worst. As the storm hits and panic rises, can Tyler find a way to save his team from the calamity? This volume in the Day of Disaster series is a quick read with some nice, tense moments, and there is a secondary plot with a teammate love interest that moves along nicely. There are some leaps in logic and timing as the dust storm approaches, but overall it's an adrenaline-fueled and tightly paced high-school disaster story with a victorious conclusion.

A real disaster follows a competitive one for an Arizona teen.After Tyler freezes during his turn in the state high school speech tournament, causing his team to lose the competition, the bus ride home is pretty uncomfortable. The white teen is sulking by himself when the team's school bus breaks down in the middle of the Arizona desert. Stranded several miles from their home city of Phoenix, the students, coach, and driver are forced to wait out what looks to be a brutal oncoming dust storm, as the second relief bus will not arrive in time. Instead of waiting safely on the bus, one teammate, a cocky know-it-all, decides to leave the group and run toward the city, without the consent of the coach. Knowing this is a dangerous move and hoping to save their teammate, Tyler and his dark-skinned crush, Julia, sneak off to go get L.J. and bring him back. The two find L.J., who has fallen and twisted his ankle. They make it back to the bus in time, and the students seal themselves in the bus as the titular black blizzard blows in. Though the story takes its time getting to the action, once the storm starts, it reads like a tutorial on how to survive it, making for absorbing reading. Others series entries publishing simultaneously include Deep Freeze, also by Johnson, and Backfire and Vortex, both by Vanessa Acton. Emergency safety advice laced with teen banter makes for a quick read. (Adventure. 12-16)