The Journey Back

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A teenage boy faces his past and seeks redemption in the gripping companion book to Red Kayak

Nine months in a juvenile detention facility was the punishment for his crime. After just a month he makes a bold escape that nearly kills him and soon an angry fourteen-year-old Digger is on the run. When injuries stop him, Digger hides at a riverside campground, where he befriends a young boy and a girl his own age. New friends, a job caring for rescued horses, and risking his life to save another make Digger realize that the journey back is not just about getting home. But he come to terms with his troubled past and face what he’s really running from?”An exciting, thoughtful story.”
—VOYA

“This high-action journey has suspense to spare, and the continual near misses will keep readers cheering for Digger.”
—BooklistPriscilla Cummings is the author of fourteen picture books and several novels for children, including A Face First, an ALA Notable, and Red Kayak, an ALA Best Books for Young Adults and winner of the Oklahoma Sequoyah and Maryland Black-Eyed Susan awards. Her novel, Blindsided, was named to the 2011 Children’s Choice list. Ms. Cummings lives with her family in Annapolis, Maryland.A daring escape.

I was thirteen—no, fourteen—years old and I was in prison because I played a practical joke on the rich neighbor who bought my grampa’s farm. My grampa is in a nursing home now, but it used to be, when things were bad at home, I could escape to Grampa’s. That’s why I hated Mr. DiAngelo so much. He was the snooty guy who bought Grampa’s farm, tore the house down, then build a mansion there so he could show off how much money he had. One day, he even kicked me and my friends off his property. So I played a joke on the a-hole, only the joke went sour and his little boy died…

For a minute there, the memories stopped. It was like hitting a wall. Everything stopped for me when I thought back to what I done. Which is why I tried not to think back on it. What good did it do? I couldn’t undo the past.

I went to prison for my crime, but now I needed to get home, so I escaped in a garbage truck, which is how I came to be squashed beneath a ton of garbage.

The sound of a distant siren pierced the air. I knew if I didn’t crawl out of that garbage and disappear, I’d be right back where I came from with even more time ahead of me.US

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