"Fleming unwinds her character-driven plot at a leisurely pace until its climax, when Jasper and Willie, who is blind, rescue the bully’s little sister from wildfire smoke. Jasper, his best friend Cassie, and even Willie come off the page as genuine, likable, and inspiring, while the bully and his family also prove to be multidimensional. There’s a lot to admire here in terms of the diversity of ethnicities and physical challenges; the depiction of relationships between friends, between enemies, and between family members; and the economy of narrative that keeps the book slender without slighting its story." --Booklist

Bryn Fleming was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, and graduated from Portland State University with a degree in English. She taught creative writing classes at Portland Community College, and has been published in Highlights, Cricket, and numerous poetry journals. Bryn volunteered at a wildlife care center as a teenager, worked in seven different National Parks, traveled and worked in Australia, New Zealand, and the Caribbean where she crewed on sailing yachts and worked at the Oregon Zoo for ten years. She now lives in Central Oregon with rescue dogs Sage and Pippin, shelter cats Amber and Angel, horse Sky, and an adopted wild burro Biscuit and mini-mule, Mercy. She is currently employed as a fish biology field technician helping to restore endangered wild steelhead to Oregon rivers.