In this authentic and heartfelt middle-grade novel, Maple uses her artwork to help sort through sibling relationships, school drama, and her parents’ increasingly fraught marriage.
Ten-year-old Maple can’t wait for summer: No more math! Adventures with her friends! Best of all, she and Dad are finally going to build a real treehouse. Or are they? Lately Dad has been quick to storm off when he argues with Mom, which happens more and more. Maple seeks refuge in her sketchbook, filling it with comics and other drawings and posing the questions she can’t bring herself to ask anywhere else. She imagines “Dadlandia,” a place that Dad whooshes off to when he’s gone. Maple confides in her favorite tree—her namesake—that she wishes Dad would come home for good. But eventually, Maple will need to step outside her imagination and confront what’s happening for real. For that, she will need support from friends and family—and strength and courage from within. Celebrated author Jo Knowles delivers complex characters and emotions with care, while illustrator Glynnis Fawkes’s powerful illustrations perfectly capture Maple’s creative spirit, her struggles, and her capacity for hope.
Jo Knowles is the author of young adult and middle-grade novels, including See You at Harry’s, Meant toBe, and Where the Heart Is, about which The Horn Book said, in a starred review, “This is one of those rare novels that feels less like a constructed story and more like a momentary glimpse into a real young life—genuine, stirring, and raw.” Jo Knowles lives in Vermont.
Glynnis Fawkes is the creator of the graphic novel Charlotte Bronte Before Jane Eyre as well as Persephone’s Garden, a collection of her autobiographical comics that appeared in the New Yorker and other places. She is on the faculty of the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont, where she lives.
In this authentic and heartfelt middle-grade novel, Maple uses her artwork to help sort through sibling relationships, school drama, and her parents’ increasingly fraught marriage.
Ten-year-old Maple can’t wait for summer: No more math! Adventures with her friends! Best of all, she and Dad are finally going to build a real treehouse. Or are they? Lately Dad has been quick to storm off when he argues with Mom, which happens more and more. Maple seeks refuge in her sketchbook, filling it with comics and other drawings and posing the questions she can’t bring herself to ask anywhere else. She imagines “Dadlandia,” a place that Dad whooshes off to when he’s gone. Maple confides in her favorite tree—her namesake—that she wishes Dad would come home for good. But eventually, Maple will need to step outside her imagination and confront what’s happening for real. For that, she will need support from friends and family—and strength and courage from within. Celebrated author Jo Knowles delivers complex characters and emotions with care, while illustrator Glynnis Fawkes’s powerful illustrations perfectly capture Maple’s creative spirit, her struggles, and her capacity for hope.
Creators
Jo Knowles is the author of young adult and middle-grade novels, including See You at Harry’s, Meant toBe, and Where the Heart Is, about which The Horn Book said, in a starred review, “This is one of those rare novels that feels less like a constructed story and more like a momentary glimpse into a real young life—genuine, stirring, and raw.” Jo Knowles lives in Vermont.
Glynnis Fawkes is the creator of the graphic novel Charlotte Bronte Before Jane Eyre as well as Persephone’s Garden, a collection of her autobiographical comics that appeared in the New Yorker and other places. She is on the faculty of the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont, where she lives.
