SOLVED. YA Novel about Cascade Mountain Eruption and Ensuing Social Decay. [s]

[Dan]

I'm looking for a YA hard science fiction / speculative novel about the aftermath of Mt. Rainier and the Cascade Mountains erupting. I read this book in the 2002–03 school year (fifth grade). The cover had a blue background, featuring a family of four wearing face masks and bicycling a large, multi-person bike with a wind sail. The words "nowhere boy" come to mind when I think of the book's possible title, but so far I've not found a book by that title matching the description. Based on the cover's illustration style and font (as I remember it), the book was probably published in the 1980s.

The plot concerned the Cascade Mountains exploding and filling the sky with ash. As crop death ensues, the U.S. sees massive looting. The protagonist, a teenaged boy, has been volunteering with an old man at a retirement home. This man had described a remote cabin he had built and abandoned years earlier. When the boy's family decides to evacuate from their home (Seattle? Portland?), they use the bicycle and head for the cabin. The book deals with some of the things they encounter on the road, including bandits and other displaced families. It ends rather abruptly with them reaching the cabin and settling in for a difficult winter.

This book came to mind during the COVID-19 lockdown. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

[Rainbowheart]

Memory Boy

[Dan]

As Charlie Brown said, "That's IT!" Thanks, Rainbowheart. Definitely surprised that it was published in 2001, given the design.

[Rainbowheart]

Glad to help out!

The cover does have kind of an '80s feel to it.

[Dan]

Yeah, right? I think because so many of my middle school library's books were printed between 1980 and 2000, I associated it with the Reagan era.