Twelve-year-old Wren Baker longs to be brave, and she certainly needs all the courage she can muster. Her mother has been hospitalized for depression, and her father has left to tend to her in Ohio. This means that Wren is suddenly living with an aunt and a cousin named Silver whom she’s only just met. Wren also feels responsible for her younger brother, Russell, who has Asperger’s and who needs her now more than ever.
In Cecilia Galante’s adept hands, these relationships are admirably and deeply explored. Not only are these characters wonderfully authentic, The World from Up Here is full of multiple adventures, including a ride in a glider plane and a runaway horse—experiences that anxious Wren never dreamed she could handle. There’s also mystery, in the form of Witch Weatherly, a hermit who lives on the top of Creeper Mountain—whom Silver is determined to meet, and who ends up playing a pivotal role in Wren’s ongoing family drama.
Wren learns that she can reach unimaginable heights, heeding the glider pilot’s advice: “Take a look. . . . It’s not every day you get to see the world from up here.”
ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our Q&A with Cecilia Galante for The World from Up Here.
This article was originally published in the July 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.
