Pamela Todd (2)

What do you do when life falls apart and you're fourteen? This is the dilemma Zoe faces. Her dad is hooked by the sea. On land, he's moody and sometimes gets very drunk, but when he's on the ocean, usually going after giant crabs up in Alaska, he's completely different. Zoe is very close to him and he's taught her how to read the subtle changes in the natural world. When her parents separate, her mother heads back to the Midwest with Zoe, her older sister, Nelia and her little brother Oliver. It's a road trip that's one mishap after another and Zoe doesn't help because she's miserable and angry. But sometimes what we get from the unknown and unexpected is the perfect medicine. Mom is coming back to the decrepit house she inherited from her grandparents, intent upon making it into a bed and breakfast.
At first, Zoe finds it very easy to hold on to her anger. When she has a moment of horror after looking in the mirror and realizing one breast is growing and the other isn't, she freaks out, especially since she's been invited to a pool party at one of the snotty girls' homes a couple days down the road. Her panicked reaction gets her in minor trouble with the law, resulting in her doing community service at a small prairie preserve near her house. At first, she resents the backbreaking work, but when she starts learning the history of the place from gruff old Hub and noticing the amazing wild boy, Ivy, life does one of those amazing shifts and she starts to really care about Ivy and the preserve.
As she learns more about her family history, the way the preserve really does represent a tiny window into how the world was a hundred years ago and how much she cares for Ivy, her life begins to make sense and she gets that elusive sense of place, so important to everyone. It doesn't come easily, she has to deal with accepting that her family is never going to be like it was when they lived on the west coast and she has to deal with losing people she cares about more than anything, but these make her stronger and more grounded. The book ends on one of those perfect notes that lets your imagination write the next chapter yourself.
While this is an older book (I discovered it while moving it to our storage collection), it's a wonderful story for younger teens who love nature or are struggling with where and how they fit in.… (mehr)