When Zoe’s parents separate, her mother takes her, along with her older sister and younger brother, from Seattle to the Midwest, planning to turn a long-empty and dilapidated family home into a bed-and-breakfast guesthouse. Desperately missing her fisherman father and blaming her mother for the separation, Zoe acts out, gets caught shoplifting, and finds herself assigned community service at a local nature preserve. There she meets and falls in love with a local boy who is as much a misfit as she is, and also falls in love with the wildness of the natural world. Younger readers will respect author Todd’s own passion for the wild things of the world, but may wish she had expressed it in a less discursive manner in this very long, symbol-laden, and slow-paced novel. However, older readers—including adults—will be intrigued by her careful exploration of relationships and the emotional dynamics of a family in transition.