The Wrong Way Home

A white 12-year-old slowly reacclimates after fleeing a futurist cult in this heartening tale by O’Shaugnessy (Lasagna Means I Love You). After living for six years on the Ranch—a self-sustaining, off-the-grid farm in New York helmed by the ill-tempered Dr. Ben—Fern Silvana’s “world cracks open” when she and her mother escape against Fern’s wishes to a coastal town near San Francisco. Initially, Fern is furious and desperate to find a way back to the Ranch. But as she gets to know the people of Driftaway Beach—especially Scottish and South Asian American classmate Eddie and kind tea shop owner Babs—and becomes reacquainted with pleasures and technologies banned on the Ranch (dancing, fantasy fiction, K-Pop, medicine, sugar, TV), Fern’s resolve wavers. Wistful first-person narration probes Fern’s conflicting emotions as she fumbles for a sense of belonging and struggles to think for herself. Driven by a growing self-awareness that she can choose who and what she believes, this is a moving portrait of a girl undergoing drastic change and fitting the broken pieces of her world together to find her place in it. Supporting characters are intersectionally diverse. Ages 10–up. Agent: Pete Knapp, Park & Fine Literary. (Apr.)