Halfway to the Sky
Grades 5-8--Grieving over the recent death of her 13-year-old brother from muscular dystrophy and the breakup of her parents' marriage that immediately followed, 12-year-old Dani runs away from home, intending to hike the Appalachian Trail, where her parents met 14 years earlier. Her mother tracks her down in the middle of her second night away, and Dani convinces her to accompany her-first for a few nights, then for a week, and finally for just over two months. Along with discoveries about the natural world, Dani also finds the capacity to hike and to heal emotionally. She improves her relationship with her mother and is able to return home with a changed attitude that will allow her to mend fractured friendships. This is a fairly standard coming-of-age novel with the added benefit of Dani's mother also growing and healing during their time together on the trail. Although they must return home and resume their normal lives, they vow to continue their hike in sections until they complete their goal, which ends the novel on a positive note and hints at a continued closeness between mother and daughter. The book's setting provides a unique backdrop to their mutual journeys of discovery, and an afterword supplies an abbreviated history of the 2163-mile Appalachian Trail.Ellen Fader, Multnomah County Library, Portland, ORCopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.