From Deborah Ellis, the bestselling author of Sit and Step, comes a new short story collection about the moments when the adult world disappoints, and it’s time to pick up … and Go.

Brodie’s parents and brother expect him to step up for Team Family, even when Team Family has no intention of returning the favor. Joanie is left to take a city bus for the first time with her impossibly cranky grandmother and learns to stand up for what she wants. Alone in a foreign country, without money, shelter or papers, Liberi steals an expensive purse from a tourist and then figures out what to do with his feelings of guilt. Bastien, the foster kid no one wants, discovers his own inner strength when a wildfire ravages the town. And Kelsey and his brother find themselves robbing graves in the middle of the night, but for the best possible reason.

When the grownups turn their backs, the kids in these stories find a way to go forward. Sometimes it takes a little magical thinking. Sometimes a small act of bravery. Sometimes extending a hand to someone else. But always a realization that there is somewhere to go, if you pay attention, take action and refuse to give in to the dark.

Key Text Features

biographical information

epigraph

short stories

Correlates to the Common Core States Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.5

Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fits together to provide the overall structure of a particular story, drama, or poem.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6

Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.2

Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.