A year after her mother's death, sixteen-year-old Sidonie still spends sleepless nights playing cards with her cat, Bogie. During the day she lies around and reads under the nose of her nineteen-year-old sister, Roberta, who angrily scrubs floors that are already clean and cooks meals that are inedible. Their father, a doctor, comes home when he is too exhausted to remain at work. Only the jazz piano-playing of Roberta's new boyfriend, Phil, brings some relief to the long hot summer.

Then Kieran, an angry sixteen-year-old stranger, comes to their lakeside community. Sidonie discovers that he isn't easy to ignore, and in the weeks that follow, her growing attraction to him is accompanied by more frequent, powerful memories of her mother.

Martha Brooks lives in Winnipeg. Her book Traveling on into the Light was named to the international 1996 IBBY Honour List and is an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults. Two Moons in August and Paradise Caf and Other Stories were Governor General’s Award nominees; the latter also received the 1991 Boston Globe Horn Book Award for distinguished children’s fiction. When not writing, Martha can be found performing in local jazz clubs. Maureen Hunter is one of Canada’s most successful playwrights. Her work has been produced extensively on Canada’s major stages, in the United States, and Britain, and by CBC and BBC Radio. Atlantis was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award and Transit of Venus, premiered by the Manitoba Theatre Centre, became the first Canadian play ever staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company of Britain. A native of Saskatchewan, Maureen now lives on the banks of the Red River in Winnipeg.

Martha Brooks' profile page

• Long-listed, Governor General's Literary Awards: Text

A book that belongs on the shelf with the few but essential novels that are both intelligently written and appealing to YA audiences.

School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW

The writing is sensitive and believable, the characterizations absorbing, the voice strong.

Literature and Language

The pages fly by quickly because the people, their struggles and their strengths hold your interest. This is a very successful treatment of a challenging theme.

Toronto Star

...[Brooks] approaches life's events, both large and small, with intelligence, patience and remarkable insight.

Children's Book News