For Ages
12 to 99

From the award-winning author of The Running Dream and Flipped comes a remarkable portrait of a girl who has hit rock bottom but begins a climb back to herself at a wilderness survival camp.

3:47 a.m. That’s when they come for Wren Clemmens. She’s hustled out of her house and into a waiting car, then a plane, and then taken on a forced march into the desert. This…

An Excerpt fromWild Bird

1

“Wren . . .”

My name is floating around me. Bouncing on the clouds in my mind.

“Wren . . . wake up, Wren.”

Everything’s cocoony. Drifty. The clouds are so soft.

“Wren, come on. It’s time to go.”

Go? Go where? Who said that? I don’t recognize his voice. I look around my cloud, but it’s dark. Like a storm is coming.

Then thunder begins to roll. “Wren!”

I pull in, hunker down. Why is he on my cloud? “Go away,” I mumble through the rocks in my mouth. I need a drink. Maybe if I licked the cloud . . .

“She’s totally wasted, Mom.”

Wait. That was Anabella. What’s she doing on my cloud?

She was definitely not invited.

The narc.

I can’t see her either, though. And now the cloud is rocking. Rocking and spinning.

“Go back to bed,” my mother whispers.

My mother? No! Not her, too!

A new voice struggles into the darkness. A small, sleepy voice. “What’s going on?”

It’s Mo! My little buddy, my Mowgli, my Mo-bro! He can be on my cloud. Anytime! But . . . no . . . wait. First I have to hide some things. Quick. I need…

Under the Cover