Navigating Early (Hardcover)

Winter 2012 Kids Next List

“Newbery Award-winner Vanderpool has done it again! This terrific coming-of-age story begins as WWII comes to an end and so many people have lost so much. After Jack Baker's mother dies suddenly, his father returns from the front lines, uproots him from the only home he's ever known in Kansas, and enrolls Jack in a boarding school near his naval base in Maine. Jack has learned how to count on his own sadness and loss, but when he meets Early Auden, sometime-student and full-time puzzle, Jack's life takes a surprising turn. Fall break finds the boys on a quest to find a bear, a timber rattler, and, maybe, a brother. I read this in one sitting, and you will too!”
— Anne Holman, The King's English, Salt Lake City, UT