Unlike his schoolmates, Jeremy doesn't come from a village where the streets have neat rows of tidy houses. And because he doesn't own a bicycle, his long walk home from school turns frightful when the road winds through shadowy woods and swirling leaves. But when Jeremy encounters a kind old man with a canary on his shoulder, he learns that it's worth walking on a few briars to get home to a place where people love you.

Cherry Smith teaches preschool in Greenwood, South Carolina, and dreamed of writing and illustrating books from the time she was a child. A visual arts graduate of Lander University, she speaks at schools and libraries and is the author and illustrator of a previous book, Juniper Jupiter: World's Greatest Juggler.