Thirteen-year-old Mia Singer thought that she had it all under control. Sure, her grades were slipping a little bit (well, really, more than a little), and she couldn't explain her occasional compulsion to shoplift, but things weren't that bad. Then the sudden death of a classmate affects Mia in a way she can't quite define—and she goes one step too far. At their wits' end, Mia's parents place her in an "alternative" boarding school. Away from her parents and surrounded by trees, space and students whose problems she can't completely comprehend, Mia has no choice but to learn about herself. With insight and sympathy, Nora Raleigh Baskin focuses on the universal feeling of being a misfit, showing that sometimes the path home is as unexpected as it is challenging.