Two recently orphaned siblings embark on an unforgettable
cross-country road trip in search of their place in the world.
When her mother dies, fifteen-year-old Mari is desperate to avoid being
caught up in the foster system....again. And to complicate matters, she
is now the only one who can take care of her super-smart and
on-the-spectrum nine-year-old stepbrother, Conor. Is there anyone Mari
can trust to help them? Certainly not her mother's current boyfriend,
Dennis. Not the doctors or her teachers, who would be obliged to call in
social services.
So in a desperate move, Mari takes Conor and sets out to find their
estranged grandmother, hoping to throw themselves at the mercy of the
only person who might take them in. On their way to New England, the duo
experiences the snarls of LA traffic, the backroads of the Midwest, and
a monumental stop in Missouri where they witness the solar eclipse, an
event with which Conor is obsessed.
Mari also learns about the inner workings of her stepbrother's mind and
about her connections to him and to the world...and maybe even a little
about her own place in it. This heartwarming, fast-paced, and engaging
middle grade novel is a beautiful exploration of identity and family.