The Possibility of Now
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Kim Culbertson is back with another fantastic new novel about what happens when you've been planning for the future, but everything falls apart now.Mara James has always been a perfectionist with a plan. But despite years of overachieving at her elite school, Mara didn't plan on having a total meltdown during her calculus exam. Like a rip-up-the-test-and-get-escorted-out kind of meltdown. And she definitely didn't plan on never wanting to show her face again. Mara knows she should go back,only she can't bring herself to do it. Because suddenly she doesn't know why she's been overachieving all these years. So Mara tells her mom she wants to go live with her estranged dad in Tahoe. Maybe in a place like Tahoe, where people go to get away from everyday life, and with a dad like Trick McHale, a ski bum avoiding real life, Mara can figure things out.Except Tahoe is nothing like she thought it would be. There are awesome new friends and a chance to finally get to know Trick, but there are also still massive amounts of schoolwork. Can Mara find a balance between the future and the now, or will she miss out on both?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
All her life, Mara James has been the perfect daughter and the perfect student, winning a scholarship to a prestigious private school and staying on track to be valedictorian. Then she has a meltdown during a calculus test, an event someone tapes and shares online. Humiliated and shamed, Mara leaves San Diego to spend a semester with her biological father, a ski bum in Tahoe whom she hasn't seen in nearly a decade. In a story about finding the delicate balance between hard work and fun, pleasing others and pleasing oneself, Culbertson (Catch a Falling Star) introduces a fragile heroine who embodies all the traits of a workaholic living for the future instead of the present. Other archetypal characters include Isabel, an Olympic hopeful with goals as lofty as Mara's; Beck, a rich, spoiled rebel at odds with his conformist father; and laid-back Logan, who wins Mara's heart. Anyone who has felt the pressure to be number one will empathize with Mara's struggle to accept setbacks, move forward, and feel the joy of spontaneity. Ages 12 up.
