I pull my arms inside my sweatshirt like a turtle and nudge the useless propane heater a little closer with my shoe. My phone says it’s forty-eight degrees outside, but the big thermometer on the wall-a glass tube in a rusted frame that says VIN FIZ over an engraved biplane-says it’s forty-three degrees in here, and even though that’s impossible, I believe it, because all things are possible in Sucksburgh.
We haven’t spent a winter here yet, but I’m sure that when we do, hot snow will rise from the ground and fall up into the sky. Our mountain is blue, our dogs are the size of horses, and right now it’s colder inside Dad’s hangar than outside. The laws of logic hold no sway here in Upshuck County. I looked it up on a map, to see if there’s a Lower Shuckburgh in England, and there is indeed-north of Upper Shuckburgh. Why didn’t the founders simply name this rustic rolling valley Shuckburgh? Of course, a better question is why didn’t they give it a name that wasn’t so close to Sucksburgh or Upchuck or so many other delightful variations, but maybe curse words were different in the 1700s.ĭad said our town is named after a city in England. THE THING THAT BOTHERS ME most about Upper Shuckburgh-and it’s hard to pick only one-is that there’s no Lower Shuckburgh. It’s a story that’s touching and funny, an authentic meditation on the pain of loss, and the challenge of getting paint to stick to cows. Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the worst day of his life, and in the three hundred and sixty-four days since then he hasn’t stopped running: from his family, his memories, and the horse-sized farm dogs that chase him to the bus stop every morning.īut he can’t run forever, and Kirby and his friends PJ and Jake sneak out of his house to play a prank with consequences that follow them to school the next day, causing a chain reaction of mayhem and disaster.
Kirby Burns is about to have the second worst day of his life. “As irreverent as it is gratifying.” -David Arnold, New York Times bestselling author of Kids of Appetite and MosquitolandĪ grieving teen faces dangerous classmates, reckless friends, and the one-year anniversary of his sister’s devastating death in this poignant, quirky, often humorous novel that’s perfect for fans of Jeff Zentner and Brendan Kiely. A phenomenal debut!” -Ransom Riggs, New York Times bestselling author of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
“Full of wit and wisdom, and riotously funny to boot.
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