Front Country

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. [em]Agent: Lucy Cleland, Kneerim & Williams. (Sept.) [/em]