The Journey Back [Paperback]

A teenage boy faces his past and seeks redemption in the gripping companion book toRed Kayak

Nine months in a juvenile detention facility was the punishment for his crime. After just a month he makes a bold escape that nearly kills him and soon an angry fourteen-year-old Digger is on the run. When injuries stop him, Digger hides at a riverside campground, where he befriends a young boy and a girl his own age. New friends, a job caring for rescued horses, and risking his life to save another make Digger realize that the journey back is not just about getting home. But he come to terms with his troubled past and face what he's really running from? An exciting, thoughtful story.
—VOYA

This high-action journey has suspense to spare, and the continual near misses will keep readers cheering for Digger.
—BooklistPriscilla Cummings is the author of fourteen picture books and several novels for children, includingA Face First, an ALA Notable, andRed Kayak, an ALA Best Books for Young Adults and winner of the Oklahoma Sequoyah and Maryland Black-Eyed Susan awards. Her novel,Blindsided, was named to the 2011 Children’s Choice list. Ms. Cummings lives with her family in Annapolis, Maryland.A daring escape.

I was thirteen—no, fourteen—years old and I was in prison because I played a practical joke on the rich neighbor who bought my grampa's farm. My grampa is in a nursing home now, but it used to be, when things were bad at home, I could escape to Grampa's. That's why I hated Mr. DiAngelo so much. He was the snooty guy who bought Grampa's farm, tore the house down, then build a mansion there so he could show off how much money he had. One day, he even kicked me and my friends off his property. So I played a joke on the a-hole, only the joke went sour and his little boy died...

For a minute there, the memories stopped. It was like hitting a wall. Everything sl#A