Most excitingly, she uncovers a journal kept by one Pippa Spence when she was evacuated to the Highlands during World War II. Burning with shame, she persuades her parents to let her try home schooling and (eventually) makes friends with Sid, the prickly granddaughter of her parents’ gardener. However, while the ebullient Jax quickly settles in, Callie embarrasses herself on her first visit to the local school.
Callie, who departed California ostracized by her friends, imagines the cachet of being the exotic American in her new school. Callie’s parents, who as grad students rented a cottage on the grounds and became close to the late owner, Lady Whittington-Spence, begin much-needed renovations. Seventh grader Callie her 7-year-old brother, Jax and their parents leave San Diego after inheriting a castle in the Scottish countryside. (Mar.A new life in a new country does not, at first, bring the fresh start Callie hoped for. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich, and Bourret. McCullough ( We Are the Ashes, We Are the Fire), who lived in a Scottish castle as a young child, writes with compassion and knowledge as she traces Callie’s ups and downs in a new country alongside her burgeoning, awkwardly won knowledge of friendship and self. She also connects with two kindred spirits-club member Raj, who is of Indian descent, and Sid, the strawberry-blond granddaughter of her parents’ landscaper-and finds the diary of Pippa Spence, which details her evacuation to the Highlands during WWII and offers insight into the social nature of starlings. Callie opts to join a local bird-watching club and, despite the disappointing club’s sexist leader and obnoxious all-boy membership, develops a passion for birds. She begs to be homeschooled, but her parents will only agree if she chooses a social activity. Callie’s life in Scotland is far from perfect, however: the castle is badly in need of repair, and the kids at her new school seem no different from the classmates who turned against her at home.
Seventh grader Callie, who is white, can’t wait to trade her “small” San Diego existence for life in the sprawling Scottish castle her parents have inherited from Lady Whittington-Spence, a noblewoman from whom they once rented a cottage on the grounds.
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