Basic training is over. For eleven-year-old Robbi, the real work on the Laddertop station begins … even as its strange, dark secrets grow more compelling. With the help of mentally-linked robot companions, she and an elite crew of children perform the dangerous maintenance work on the Power Web. But only Robbi keeps having urgent dreams from The Givers, the alien species who bestowed upon humans all the Laddertop technology. Meanwhile, her best friend Azure goes from Laddertop reject to a recruit for a secret research mission, led by a group of rebels who don’t trust that the Givers mean no harm. Though on different paths, the two friends’ destinies soon collide, as they decipher an alien message and solve an ancient mystery that could either save the Earth from invasion … or trigger its imminent destruction.
Fourteen-year-old Elvira Witsil lives in a remote area of Wisconsin with her mother, Connie, who acknowledges Elvira only when chores need doing; her grandma, a cantankerous woman who can't hold her tongue; and her baby sister, Jessie --- who, the family discovers, is a seer.
Along with the burdens of a difficult family, Elvira also bears a daunting secret --- she encouraged her father to enlist in WWII. Ever since he was declared missing in action, Elvira has felt responsible for his presumed death.
But Jessie also carries a secret about the father she never met --- a secret so powerful that when her mother, Connie, learns of it, she sends the family on a journey to California with a traveling preacher.
This powerful teen manuscript tells the story of a family's journey toward forgiveness and a young woman's journey toward faith
