Drew's a bit of a loner. She has a pet rat, her dead dad's Book of Lists, an encyclopedic knowledge of cheese from working at her mom's cheese shop, and a crush on Nick, the surf bum who works behind the counter. It's the summer before eighth grade and Drew's days seem like business as usual, until one night after closing time, when she meets a strange boy in the alley named Emmett Crane. Who he is, why he's there, where the cut on his cheek came from, and his bottomless knowledge of rats are all mysteries Drew will untangle as they are drawn closer together, and Drew enters into the first true friendship, and adventure, of her life.
Looking at the ocean gave me the same sensation I’d get staring at a sky full of stars—that I was small. Like the way a math problem reveals its undeniable truth, I knew when I stared into this sort of endlessness that my life didn’t count for much of anything. And knowing that, that I was nothing but a speck, I felt pretty lucky for all that I had.
— A sweet coming-of-age story about teenage struggles: opening up to family, making friends, belonging, and dealing with change.
