Chasing RedbirdPaperback, 24 April 2012

Zinnia Taylor has looked at those words, embroidered on a sampler hanging in her aunt Jessie's kitchen, for as long as she can remember. In her 13 years Zinny has rummaged through the spaghetti of her life, hoping for a meatball, but often finding lumps of mud instead.

Zinny lives in Bybanks, Kentuckey, with too many brothers and sisters -- a mess of "tadpoles" and "pumpkins" is what her uncle Nate calls them. When Zinny discovers a mysterious, overgrown trail that begins on her family's farm, she's determined to clear it, from start to finish. She's finally found a place of her own, a place where she can go, away from her family, to hear herself think. But what Zinny didn't realize is that the mysteries of the trail are intertwined with her own spaghetti of unanswered questions and family secrets, and that the trail -- and her passion to uncover -- is leading her on a journey home.

Newberry Medal winnner Sharon Creech's new novel is a powerful, beautifully crafted story about a young girl discovering that life is a tangle of mysteries, surprises and everyday occurences -- a journey that often needs unravelling and that sometimes must be traveled alone.