"Desmond has been waiting his whole life for this day. It is the sixth-grade field trip to Crab Shell Pier, home to the awesomely fantastic Mountain Full of Monsters ride, and Desmond has one goal: convince Tina Shimsky to ride it with him."--P. [4] of cover.

"Budding film director Kate Walden navigates middle school girl politics and chores on her mother's chicken farm while trying to become the next Spielberg"--

In 1974, when thirteen-year-old Charlie Hall's mother dies and his father retreats into silent grief, Charlie finds himself drifting, nearly friendless, through a northern Idaho junior high school but when a grizzly bear saves his life, Charlie forms an unusual friendship that changes his life.