Description

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A moving story of losing family but finding a new one. Thirteen-year-old Rachel is bad news, or so her foster care worker tells her. She's been shuttled from one rotten foster family to another ever since her mother and brother died in a car accident five years ago, and she's running out of options. So when she gets caught shoplifting and is kicked out of her latest home, the only place left to send her is the last resort for kids like her: a farm in the middle of nowhere run by a disfigured recluse named Amelia Walton, whom Rachel nicknames "Warty" because of the strange lumps covering her face and neck. Rachel settles into life at the farm, losing herself in her daily chores and Amelia's endless trivia, and trying to forget her past and the secret she's holding inside. But when a letter arrives for her out of the blue, Rachel soon realizes that you can't hide from your past-or your future.

About the Author

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Susan White was born in New Brunswick and as a teenager her family moved to the Kingston Peninsula and she only left long enough to earn her BA and BEd at St. Thomas University in Fredericton. She and her husband raised four children and ran a small farm while she taught elementary school. Since retiring she is grateful to now have the time to work on her writing and the freedom to regularly visit her grandchildren in Alberta. She is the author of Waiting for Still Water, Maple Sugar Pie and five middle-grade novels, including the Ann Connor Brimer Award winning novel The Year Mrs. Montague Cried.