Poignant tale of a 9-year-old girl's emotional journey after her idyllic life is shattered by her mother's illness. Ida B's life is perfect: she is home-schooled by loving parents on a beautiful farm with its own orchard, creek and mountain (well, a pile of earth too tall to be called a hill). Left to her own devices in this rural haven, she talks to the trees in the orchard and sends miniature rafts down the creek, to which she attaches notes like "What is life like in Canada? Please respond". But the idyll is shattered when Ida B's mother develops cancer. Her father is forced to stop home-schooling her and to sell the orchard to a property developer. Feeling angry and betrayed, Ida B rebels in every way she can think of until a young teacher at her new school shows her how to open her heart to others

 

 

There are 240 pages in this book. This book was published in 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers .

Katherine Hannigan was raised in New York State and earned degrees in education, mathematics and art. She lives in northeast Iowa, which provided much of the inspiration for this book. "Ida B came to be," she says, "because of my move to the Midwest. Hers is the life I would have chosen, if I could have. "