Summary
Still grieving her father's recent death and the loss of her comfortable biracial nuclear American family life, fourteen-year-old Ari struggles to adjust to her new life in Portland, Oregon, with a loving but unfamiliar extended Indian family. When Ari steals her mother's necklace and escapes to the forest, she accidentally plunges into a terrifying world of wild birds in the underbelly of Portland's Forest Park trails.
Ari soon realizes that more than her return home is at stake: Birds are mysteriously dying, threatening a war between species-and her necklace is the only thing protecting her. Can Ari bring peace to the forest and find her way home? And where exactly is home when all she wants to do is run away?
A middle-grade coming-of-age story, Cascadia's Call is about finding your voice and learning how to belong when all you do is stand out.
About the author
NEHA N. HEWITT is a first-generation Indian American, mother, lawyer, writer, and leader of various book clubs.
A civil rights lawyer for twenty years, Neha is dedicated to promoting diverse stories for youth audiences and children with dyslexia and other disabilities. You can find many diverse voices in her work, and her book will be accessible by audiobook as well as hard copy.
Neha is an avid hiker who writes about the everyday beauty around us. A set of her poems on yoga and social justice has been published in the online journal Mindful Word.
If she’s not out in nature, she is cheering at a girls’ soccer game, biking to her day job, or collapsed on the couch with chocolate and tea, devouring her most recent book club pick. She currently resides down the street from Forest Park in the West Hills of Portland, Oregon, with her husband, two teenage daughters, and two fluffy Siberian cats. Cascadia’s Call is her debut novel.