Eleven-year-old Ginny’s dad is an army doctor. Ginny (white) and her older sister, Allie, are blindsided when they learn his posting to Afghanistan in the new year has been changed; he leaves shortly after their expected move from North Carolina to Maryland at the end of the school year. Allie, who is gifted athletically and makes friends easily, is out playing with kids in their new neighborhood right away. Ginny, who is gifted academically but struggles socially, isn’t. Passionate about maps, she’s upset when a geography summer camp at the nearby community center is cancelled, and her efforts to engage the neighborhood kids in her interests fail. Ginny’s dad, who understands her best, video calls when he can, but not as often as any of them want. With their mom focused on a new job, and Allie and Ginny at odds, tensions in their house are high. As the family faces an additional unexpected challenge around the deployment, Ginny and Allie’s relationship, and their individual struggles with the move and missing their dad, turn a corner as everyone in the family learns to be more honest, open, understanding, and supportive of one another. Believable characters ground this engaging book set in 2015 illuminating some of the challenges unique to military families, as well as challenges many families can understand. Smaller subplots involving the diverse kids in the neighborhood and Ginny’s expectations around school all further enrich this inviting, welcome story featuring a likely neurodivergent main character in Ginny. (Ages 8-12)

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Kirkus Reviews • CCBC • Reading Middle Grade

★ "Delightful ... It's hard to write with such simple authenticity: The world needs more stories like this." —Kirkus Review, starred review

★ "Caroline Hickey portrays the full emotional cycle of deployment with accuracy and compassion. Immersive first-person chapters, which each open with a geography fact, accurately convey the comfort and the isolation that can accompany an intense special interest alongside Ginny’s broadening recognition of the needs of the people around her." —Publishers Weekly, starred review​

A heartfelt coming-of-age novel about trying to find one’s place in the world perfect for fans of Judy Blume, The Fourteenth Goldfish, and The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl.

There are two things Ginny Pierce loves most in the world: geography facts and her father. But when her dad is deployed overseas and Ginny’s family must move to yet another town, not even her facts can keep her afloat. The geography camp she’s been anxiously awaiting gets canceled, and her new neighbors prefer her basketball-star sister. Worst of all, her dad is in a war zone and impossible to get ahold of. Ginny decides that running her own camp for the kids on her street will solve all her problems. But can she convince them (and herself) that there's more to her than just facts? 
 
With a fierce heart and steadfast determination, Ginny tackles the challenges and rewards of staying true to herself during a season of growth. This thoughtful novel explores the strength that develops through adversity; Ginny must learn to trust her inner compass as she navigates the world around her.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection