The Trouble with Heroes
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
An instant New York Times bestseller!
A USA Today bestseller!
Read with Jenna Jr. Summer Reading List Pick!
"Genuinely moving." --The New York Times Book Review
"Explores the healing power of hiking." --NPR's All Things Considered
Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year | School Library Journal Best Book of the Year | Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year: Middle Grade | The Week Jr. Best Book of the Year | Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year | An NCTE Charlotte Huck Award Honor Book | The Week Jr.'s Book Club Pick
Bestselling and award-winning author Kate Messner takes readers on a heart-filling journey as a boy finds his path to healing.
One summer.
46 mountain peaks.
A second chance to make things right.
Finn Connelly is nothing like his dad, a star athlete and firefighter hero who always ran toward danger until he died two years ago. Finn is about to fail seventh grade and has never made headlines . . . until now.
Caught on camera vandalizing a cemetery, he's in big trouble for knocking down some dead old lady's headstone. Turns out that grave belongs to a legendary local mountain climber, and her daughter makes Finn an unusual offer: she'll drop all the charges if he agrees to climb all forty-six Adirondack High Peaks in a single summer. And there's just one more thing--he has to bring along the dead woman's dog.
In a wild three months of misadventures, mountain mud, and unexpected mentors, Finn begins to find his way on the trails. At the top of each peak, he can see for miles and slowly begins to understand more about himself and his dad. But the mountains don't care about any of that, and as the clock ticks down to September, they have more surprises in store. Finn's final summit challenge may be more than even a hero can face.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
After sullen seventh grader Finn Connelly is detained for damaging the headstone of late local hero Edna Grace Thomas, who once corresponded with and encouraged climbers of the 46 Adirondack peaks, Finn sees the event as further proof that he exists in stark contrast to his deceased fireman father, whose heroism on 9/11 was captured in an iconic photograph. Rather than press charges for the damage, Edna's daughter offers Finn the opportunity to make amends by summiting every peak by Labor Day with Edna's dog, Seymour. Despite feeling bitter and uncooperative, Finn begins the effort alongside experienced volunteers while simultaneously completing an overdue English class poetry assignment about heroes. As Finn contends with dog drool, mud, and red slime, he gains a new understanding of the impact his father (who "carried things heavier/ than the lady he lifted/ out of the smoke") had on his life. Messner (Chirp), an experienced Adirondack 46er, mixes moving and profoundly funny verse and prose informed by postpandemic loss to craft a timely meditation on grief, anger, and the solace offered by nature. Main characters cue as white. Ages 9–14.
