A unique, heartfelt, and gorgeously written story of the power of wilderness to heal.

Rakmen Cannon's life is turning out to be one sucker punch after another. His baby sister died in his arms, his parents are on the verge of divorce, and he's flunking out of high school.

The only place he fits in is with the other art therapy kids stuck in the basement of Promise House, otherwise known as support group central. Not that he wants to be there.

Talking doesn't bring back the dead. When he's shipped off to the Canadian wilderness with ten-year-old Jacey, another member of the support group, and her mom, his summer goes from bad to worse. He can't imagine how eight weeks of canoeing and camping could be anything but awful.

Yet despite his expectations, the vast and unforgiving backcountry just might give Rakmen a chance to find the way back from broken...if he's brave enough to grab it. Amber J. Keyser's debut novel is a wrenching and brutally honest story of adversity and hope.

• Broadly appealing story of triumph over physical and emotional obstacles.
• Millions of young readers have experienced what Rakmen goes through in this book, but stillbirth and infant mortality are rarely discussed publicly, and are almost never mentioned in books
• Strong, accessible prose appealing to the broadest range of YA readers.