Don't Shoot! Chase R.'s Top Ten Reasons NOT to Move to the Country

"When his family moves to a rural area, Chase fights culture shock. . . . Animal rights activists and urban transplants will connect." BOOKLIST Fourteen-year-old Chase Riley has just moved with his parents from Columbus, Ohio, to a farmhouse in the country, but it may as well be on another planet. For starters, there's a plague of cicadas, but that's nothing compared to the awesome appearance of deer in the woods or strapped to hunters' cars. Chase seeks refuge at his computer, blasting off droll commentary, until a freak accident involving his own dog changes everything. And that's when he begins devising The Plan. A Bank Street College Best Children's Book of the Year A West Australian Young Readers Book Award Reading List Selection

Michael J. Rosen is the acclaimed author, editor, and illustrator of some forty books for both adults and young people. Many are inspired by his lifelong interest in and experience with animals, whether as a college zoology major, an amateur bird watcher, a dog trainer, or the founder of a granting program to help animal humane societies. Of CHASER: A NOVEL IN E-MAILS, he says, "When I moved from the major city where I’d lived most of my life to a rural community, the changes were monumental. And I often thought, What if I hadn’t actually chosen to live here? I tried in this novel to think more deliberately about the complicated (and always teetering) balance we try to achieve, living, as we all do, amid an ever-diminishing natural world."