Twelve year old Joan is sure that she is going to be miserable in her new home. Then she meets a kindred spirit: Sarah, who prefers to be called “Fox” and who lives with her writer father in a rundown house in the middle of the woods. Joan and Sarah - Newt and Fox - spend all their spare time outside, talking and fooling around, and soon start writing stories together. When they win first place in a student fiction contest, they’re recruited to a prestigious summer writing class taught by a free spirit named Veria Volante. This is a book about friendship, the power of story, and how coming of age means finding your own answers - rather than simply taking adults on faith.