A WISH WITH WINGS

Twelve-year-old Evan faces a moral dilemma: Reveal what she knows and hurt others or stay silent and hurt herself.

Seventh grader Evelyn “Evan” Calais loves running wild, although Aunt Tildy tries to rein her in. When a sinkhole causes a cave-in at the salt mine where her mom does payroll, Evan’s worries ratchet up. Her miner father is in a medically induced coma, and one person is dead. Evan feels guilty: She had knowledge that might have prevented the collapse and knows her father informed his supervisor—her best friend Ford’s father—that something was amiss. But Ford’s father publicly denies prior awareness of a problem. The small, white-presenting community of Little John Island, Louisiana, depends on the mine. Weighing justice against her parents’ jobs and her friendship with Ford, Evan must decide whether and whom to tell. In a poignant subplot, Evan rescues a rare whooping crane egg from an abandoned nest. She ties its fate to her father’s, confiding in the egg as she cares for it. The book’s beauty lies in first-person narrator Evan’s passionate belief in the miraculous: the gloriously untamed natural world, the power of storytelling, and the joy of family. Guillory’s explorations of love for animals and finding solace in imagination are on a par with Katherine Applegate’s work.

A masterfully written and intensely absorbing story of a girl who discovers there are many ways to be brave.