AS EASY AS FALLING OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH

Lynne Rae Perkins has created a winning hero and a tale of how luck - both good and bad - helps us find ourselves, and gets us from here to there.

Sixteen-year-old Ry was supposed to spend his summer at archaeology camp, while his parents "revitalize their marriage" with a Caribbean sailing trip and his grandpa watches the dogs at their new house. But then he opens a last letter from the camp and discovers it has been cancelled. The problem is that he is already on the train - with no cell phone reception. When the train stops in the middle of nowhere to fix a mechanical problem, Ry gets off to try to call home. And then the train leaves without him. He runs. He jumps. He falls. The train pulls away and leaves him with an almost empty wallet, a dead phone, and a twisted ankle in the middle of nowhere.

Dogged by misfortune (losing a shoe, getting a black eye, not being able to reach anyone by phone) and buoyed by serendipity and the kindness of strangers, Ry undertakes a summer quest he never expected. Forty-four tightly paced, action-packed, episodic chapters later, he is home, having survived a boat wreck, a single-engine airplane ride, a car chase, explosions, collapses, and having forged a life-changing friendship with a stranger named Dell. "I don't know about impossible", says Dell at one truly impossible moment in their incredible journey. For Ry, a young man on the verge of adulthood, it is an epiphany that will shape his life forever.

Lynne Rae Perkins was awarded the Newbery Medal for her novel Criss Cross, and its companion, All Alone in the Universe, was named an ALA Notable Book and ALA Booklist Editors' Choice, among other honors. She has written and illustrated six picture books, including Snow Musicand Home Lovely, both Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Books.