Autumn struggles to keep her fractured family from leaving their island home — and each other — until she learns that love and change grow side by side.
"There are some things you don't have to think about, things that are simple and solid. Leaving this island is one of those. I can't leave the island. If I do, I will no longer be me."
Autumn and her parents live on a small island in the state of Washington. The slow, natural pace of her island home has always meant a great deal to Autumn, so when her father tells her that they must move to the commercial mainland, Autumn is devastated. Autumn sets out to prove to her parents how important it is for them to stay. In the course of creating an illustrated journal that highlights the wonderful things about the island, Autumn uncovers a secret about her mother that turns her world upside-down.
With poetic prose and deftly painted imagery, Monte Killingsworth tells the story of a fourteen-year-old girl in a time of upheaval, when what once seemed certain — Autumn's island life, her parents' love for each other, her family's future — all comes into question. But with those questions begins a new understanding: that simplicity can be misleading, and that loving may include letting go.