Book 2

In Search of Sam

by Kristin Butcher

Published 23 May 2015
CCBC's Best Books for Kids & Teens (Fall 2015) — Commended


When Dani sets out to uncover her father’s past, she also discovers her own future.

Raised by her mother, eighteen-year-old Dani Lancaster only had six weeks to get to know her father, Sam, before he lost his battle with cancer. It was long enough to love him, but not long enough to get to know him — especially since Sam didn't even know himself.

Left on the doorstep of an elderly couple when he was just days old, and raised in a series of foster homes, Sam had no idea who his parents were or why they had abandoned him. Dani is determined to find out. With nothing more than an address book, an old letter, and a half-heart pendant to guide her, she sets out on a solo road trip that takes her deep into the foothills, to a long-forgotten town teeming with secrets and hopefully answers.

Truths I Learned from Sam

by Kristin Butcher

Published 5 February 2013
Dani's mother is getting married - again - because that's what she does, and while she and her new husband jet around Europe for six weeks, 17 - year - old Dani is sent to stay with an uncle she didn't know she had in a small community in Cariboo country she didn't know existed. It promises to be the summer from hell. But Dani's uncle turns out to be an okay guy. In fact, Dani really likes him. And she finds romance, too. Suddenly, a summer that had doom written all over it turns into one of the best times of Dani's life. Until the bottom falls out. In a story about relationships and about how bad things happen to good people, Dani discovers that sometimes the only villain is life itself.