We Walked the Sky

A stunning, multigenerational story about a grandmother and granddaughter who both find freedom and belonging in the VanDrexel Family circus.

“[A] heartrending, trans-generational tale of learning how to start over and carry on through hard times.”—Booklist

In 1965 seventeen-year-old Victoria, having just escaped an unstable home, flees to the ultimate place for dreamers and runaways—the circus. Specifically, the VanDrexel Family Circus, where, among the lion tamers, roustabouts, and trapeze artists, Victoria hopes to start a better life.

Fifty years later, Victoria’s sixteen-year-old granddaughter, Callie, is thriving. A gifted tightrope walker with dreams of being a VanDrexel highwire legend just like her grandmother, Callie can’t imagine herself anywhere but the circus. But when Callie’s mother accepts her dream job at an animal sanctuary in Florida just months after Victoria’s death, Callie is forced to leave her lifelong home behind.

Feeling unmoored and out of her element, Callie pores over memorabilia from her family’s days on the road. And when she finds notes that a young Victoria wrote to herself with tips and tricks for navigating her new world, Callie decides to use her grandmother’s circus prowess to navigate the uncharted waters of public high school.

Across generations, Victoria and Callie embrace the challenges of starting over, letting go, and finding family in unexpected places.