Thirteen-year-old Hannah Bennett loves her life in Chadds Ford. She goes to school, helps out with her family’s dairy farm, jumps rope, and listens to favorite radio programs with her friends. Although she has difficulty reading, she does have one area of special talent: numbers. Her gift for math means that she does all of the invoicing for the farm, and helps out the younger students in their one-room schoolhouse. Best of all, Hannah enjoys a special relationship with Granddad McNaughton, who shares her passion for counting and calculating. He thinks of her gift as the key to a greater future elsewhere. “You’ll rust here,” he predicts. But Hannah can’t imagine life anywhere else. Then Hannah is offered a rare opportunity for a country girl in 1934: to test for a scholarship to attend a private school in Philadelphia. Over her parents’ objections, Hannah goes. But life in a big city is harder and lonelier than she’d ever imagined. Just when things seem at their worst, Hannah must somehow find the courage to decide what she values most. Acclaimed author Adele Griffin’s first historical novel is a funny and poignant story of one girl’s journey to her bravest self.

Adele Griffin has written several award-winning books for young readers. She lives and works in New York City.