I Think This Is Where We Came In
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I heaved the last sleeping bag up to Mike in the back of the pickup truck. He caught it and packed it beside the other camping gear. Then he turned to Paul, who was checking the maps.
“You know, Maggie may not be so bad to travel with after all, even if she is your kid sister.”
He gave me a friendly punch in the arm as he jumped down from the truck bed. I punched him back.
Doubt showed on my parents’ faces as they watched us packing. Finally they said what they felt.
“I think we need our heads examined,” Dad blurted out. What were we thinking, letting our seventeen-year-old daughter wander in the mountains in a pickup truck with
“After all, Paul is her brother,” Mom answered. “And Mike is like a brother. He's probably spent more of his lifetime with us than he's ever spent with those parents of his.”
“It’s still crazy!”
“We did bring them up to have some sense.”
“Then we’re the ones without sense!”
Mike smiled to himself as he overheard their private conversation. Then he tossed the last rope across the truck and secured it.
“That’s it,” he announced. “Everything’s tied down.”
“Okay, let’s take off,” Paul answered. “Come on, Maggie.”
I gave my folks a quick good-bye hug and climbed into the cab. Paul slid in next to me as Mike started the engine.
“See you,” I called as we pulled out of the driveway. “Don’t worry about us.”
“We will,” Dad shouted back.
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About the Book
REVISED 2006 EDITION
Maggie, her brother Paul, and Mike, who is like a second brother, are headed for a camping trip in the High Sierra. For years Mike has come over the back fence to stay with Paul whenever his alcoholic parents started their evening bickering. Although Maggie has always been the tag-along kid sister, they get along together. On the first day of this carefully planned trip their orderly plans vanish when they rescue an almost-dying Border Collie, who collapses on the scorching highway. As the convalescent dog, Fritzi, becomes a family member and camping partner, the unpredictable episodes steadily pile up. An amazing bond develops between Mike and Fritzi, who takes the place of the loving family Mike has never had. But even more amazing is the new way Mike begins to feel about Maggie as they work together and worry like new parents about their over-eager dog. Near the end of their vacation, the relationship between Mike and Fritzi is put to the ultimate test, placing an almost unbearable strain on Mike. Maggie's strength at this point confirms what she already knows. She is no longer the kid sister in Mike's life, but rather a special partner on a very different level.
"The characters are nicely handled: e.g. Mike is a sensitive young man who has always avoided attachments because of his bickering, alcoholic parents, yet his change in feelings for Maggie and Fritzi are believable." -Library Journal
"Although the story is seen through Maggie's eyes and Mike's character comes through as the most developed, it is the canine protagonist who steals the show." -Booklist
"The mix sounds improbable, but the end result avoids disaster with writing skill." -Children's Book Review Service Inc.
About the Author
Phyllis Anderson Wood, winner of the Church and Synagogue Library Association's award for "significant contribution to children's literature," is the author of thirteen young adult novels, which have been popular since 1971 in schools and libraries throughout the
These novels were written during Mrs. Wood's years of teaching in the
Altogether, Mrs. Wood taught for thirty years in
More information can be found on her website, www.phyllisandersonwood.com.