Trouble

From Newbery and Printz Honor winner Gary D. Schmidt comes a tender, probing story of social change set in New England."Henry Smith's father told him that if you build your house farenough away from Trouble, then Trouble will never find you."But Trouble comes careening down the road one night in theform of a pickup truck that strikes Henry's older brother,Franklin. In the truck is Chay Chouan, a young Cambodian fromFranklin's preparatory school, and the accident sparks racial tensions in the school-and in the well-established town whereHenry's family has lived for generations.Caught between anger and grief, Henry sets out to do the onlything he can think of: climb Mt. Katahdin, the highest mountainin Maine, which he and Franklin were going to climb together.Along with Black Dog, whom Henry has rescued from drowning, and a friend, Henry leaves without his parents' knowledge. Thejourney, both exhilarating and dangerous, turns into an odyssey of discovery about himself, his older sister, Louisa, his ancestry, and why one can never escape from Trouble.

Gary D. Schmidt is the author of the Newbery Honor and Printz Honor book Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy. His most recent novel is The Wednesday Wars. He is a professor of English at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.