The literary achievements of the novel derive particularly from the literary strategies employed in narrating the story of adolescents facing and coping with a crisis of physical survival. The most interesting of these strategies is Strasser's use of point of view. He selects the youngest character as a first-person narrator giving his account of the story.

The construction of the text through the perspective of Ian perfectly meets Strasser's intention of aiming at pre-adolescent readers. First of all, even though Ian seems to be rather mature for his age, Ian is still modeled as a "regular kid" whom readers can easily identify with. Second, throughout the entire story he is constructed as acting more competently and responsibly than the older protagonists. Third, Ian's reflections and assessment of the events are delineated in a believable way both in their contents as well as in their language. He...