Where does Jen belong? In this high-interest accessible novel for teen readers, Jen learns that her mom has been keeping a secret: Jen has a biological father who isn't the dad she grew up with. Now this secret threatens to tear their family apart.
Seventeen-year-old Jen is shocked to discover that the dad she grew up with is not her biological father.
Jen loves to sing. But the rest of her family can't carry a tune. When a stranger named Mike gives her roses at her concert and reveals that he is her birth father, Jen's world flips upside down. Mike is a musician, just like Jen, and now she understands why she looks nothing like Steve, the only dad she's ever known.
When Steve learns the truth Jen's mom has been hiding all these years, he moves out, and Jen can't help but feel responsible. Worse, she doesn't know who she is anymore. It feels like her whole life has been a lie. Is Steve still her dad? What about Mike? When it feels like her family is falling apart, Jen doesn't know where she belongs.
Key Selling Points
• A teen learns that she has a biological father who isn't the dad she grew up with and that her mom has kept this secret Jen's whole life.
• This story explores family dynamics as well as themes of identity and belonging.
• The author has written a number of short novels for striving readers, including these hi-lo books in the Orca Currents line: Iggy's World and Bigfoot Crossing, both JLG Gold Standard Selections, and The Ride Home, which was shortlisted for a BC and Yukon Book Prize.
• Although her own story is different, the author drew from personal experience, as she too grew up with one dad, only to discover as a teen that she also had a biological father who wasn't the dad she grew up with. She and her birth dad both loved to sing.
• Enhanced features (dyslexia-friendly font, cream paper, larger trim size) to increase reading accessibility for dyslexic and other striving readers.
Orca Anchor books are short, high-interest novels with contemporary themes written specifically for teens reading below a grade 2.0 level.
Gail Anderson-Dargatz is the award-winning author of over a dozen books, including The Cure for Death by Lightning and A Recipe for Bees, which were finalists for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. She has also written a number of short novels for striving readers, including the Orca Currents titles Bigfoot Crossing and Iggy's World, both JLG Gold Standard Selections, and The Ride Home, which was shortlisted for a BC and Yukon Book Prize. Gail lives in the Shuswap region of British Columbia.
