Front Country

July 15, 2022
A monthlong camping trip in the Montana wilderness brings insights to eighth grader Ginny Shepard. Ginny is on track to being the co-valedictorian of her class along with her best friend, Zinzie. She's also the school's top tennis player and has just been accepted into a competitive summer school program at Columbia University. Her lawyer parents couldn't be more pleased. But in science class, Ginny learns that climate change is causing the extinction of thousands of species, including her beloved pika, a furry little animal found in the Rocky Mountains, and she has a meltdown. She skips class to attend a climate rally and quits the tennis team. Her parents, desperately worried, sign her up for a four-week organized hiking trip in Montana. Ginny is initially thrilled, but when she gets there, she finds that it's actually a trip for troubled teens. Even worse, with the exception of one of the two leaders, she is the only girl among five boys. Set just post-Covid, the expertly crafted plot incorporates contemporary concerns as well as timeless truths into its layered plot. Each character's backstory is organically revealed as the story unfolds, and the dialogue is especially effective. As Ginny slowly adapts to her circumstances, questions are not so much answered as they are explored and taken on. Ginny reads White; some secondary characters bring racial diversity. Riveting. (Adventure. 10-14)

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August 15, 2022
Beset by climate anxiety, an eighth grader abandons her honor-roll and tennis goals and heeds the mountains’ call during a transformative expedition. Ginny Shepard, a privileged Massachusetts girl obsessed with subalpine pikas, struggles with anticipatory anxiety after her aggrieved science teacher tells her class that extinctions and extreme weather are “previews of the horror show that is your future.” Her peers laugh it off, but Ginny skips class to attend an environmental rally, quits tennis, and rejects a prestigious summer program at Columbia. Worried by her seemingly rash decisions, her parents enroll her in a Montana hiking camp, TrackFinders; at first excited, Ginny feels betrayed after learning it’s actually a program designed to help troubled teens “get back on track” in their day-to-day lives. Though she initially finds it difficult to connect with fellow campers and overzealous counselors, Ginny uncovers a newfound inner peace and prospers under rough conditions while hiking, communing with her beloved pikas, and helping to manage a health emergency. Without diminishing the existential threat of climate change, this uplifting novel from St. Antoine (Three Bird Summer) attentively exhibits ways that communities can support one another in troubling times. Characters present as white. Ages 10–up. Agent: Lucy Cleland, Kneerim & Williams.