KLICKITAT

Teenage sisters Audra and Vivian live in the sleepy suburbs of Portland, Oregon, just around the corner from Klickitat Street, the home of Beverly Cleary's famous Beezus and Ramona. Frustrated with what she deems the robotic existence of their parents and community, Audra studies wilderness survival skills in preparation for a life off the grid while the sickly Vivian watches, anxious to remain close to her increasingly anarchic older sister. When Audra disappears, having spoken of a mysterious and helpful male companion, Vivian awaits a signal to join her. The waiting is interrupted by the arrival of cryptic messages in an old notebook—messages not unlike the disembodied voices on the airwaves of her father's ham radio—that speak to Vivian's isolation and point to a world beyond her own. Audra soon reappears to collect her sister, but as runaways their relationship is strained, colored by the presence of Audra's boyfriend and by a growing sense of spiritual unease. With a haunted and enigmatic poetry reminiscent of exploratory classics like Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth, award-winning novelist Peter Rock's young adult debut, Klickitat, explores the emotional tangles and possibilities of girlhood and the powerful ties of sisterhood.