In this addition to the growing genre of teen girls confronting death, Wendy Wunder's debut novel offers some perceptive observations on mortality.
Campbell Cooper knows she will never reach the age of 18. She was diagnosed with neuroblastoma as a child, and she has just learned that there are no more clinical trials left. Her mother surprises Cam and her 11-year-old sister, Perry, with a summer trip to Promise, Maine, because of its purported healing powers. Cam does not believe in miracles, but her mother and sister do. She agrees to the trip in part because she "realized she'd be spending the rest of her short life making other people feel better about the prospect of losing her." The three pile into Cam's VW Beetle and tote a U-Haul from their Florida home, making stops along the way.
Each person they visit tries to give Cam the "miracle" that will work. Her best friend, Lily, baptizes Cam. Nana, Alicia's mother, urges her to take a "mystic" maple leaf from the churchyard of Our Lady of Ascension in Hoboken, N.J. But only when she meets Asher, whose family founded Promise, Maine, does Cam begin to feel a sense of hope. The novel bogs down with a few subplots (such as when Cam tries to "rescue" a lobster) and a few comments may pull readers out of the narrative (e.g., "Teenagers run in packs. And for too long she'd been trying to go it alone"). But the evolution of Cam's relationships with her sister and mother hold the novel together. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness