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Summary:
During her freshman year of high school, Ally Griffin is determined to find her thing, a talent that will let her gain praise and recognition. Her cousins, Billy and James, have found theirs in sports and music, but Ally has yet to discover something that will make people cheer just for her.
At her best friend’s suggestion, Ally tries ballet. When that doesn’t turn out the way she hopes, she signs up to sing in the school talent show. Thanks to support from James, Ally’s performance goes well, and she thinks she has found her thing at last.
But when James gets into an accident, Ally’s whole world is turned upside down. As she tries to be there for her cousin, Ally wrestles with why God allows bad things to happen and whether she should keep doing her thing at all.
Read an excerpt:
Unfortunately, it started raining a few minutes before the bus reached our stop. By unspoken consent, the two of us walked home as quickly as we could so that we could get warm and dry as soon as possible.
I wanted to talk to James as soon as I’d changed into dry clothes, but I knew better than to try. Grandpa insisted that we start on our homework as soon as we got home, and while I was willing to bend that rule from time to time, James definitely was not. Resigned to wait, I solved a page of equations and read the short story Mrs. Chamberlain had assigned.
When I was finished, I went in search of my cousin to see if he had completed his homework, too. I found him sitting in a rocking chair on the porch with his eyes closed.
“What are you doing?” I asked, puzzled.
He opened his eyes and looked at me. “Listening to the rain. God plays beautiful music, don’t you think?”
I wasn’t sure how to respond. James said stuff like that sometimes. Random, weird stuff. And I was never sure what to make of it.
“It’s not music, James,” I said. “It’s just water hitting the roof.”
He shrugged, unperturbed, and studied my face. “What’s wrong, Ally?”
“What makes you think something’s wrong?” I demanded.
“You’ve got that ‘I really want to ask you something, but I don’t know how you’ll take it’ look on your face.”
I smiled. He always could read me like an open book.
“Well…” I said slowly. “You heard about the talent show at school today, right?”
He nodded. “Yeah, Mr. Jenkins announced it in homeroom.”
I bit my lip and stared at my lap. I wanted to sing in the talent show so badly. What if James did, too?
“What about it?” James prompted when I didn’t continue.
“Do you want to enter?” I asked and held my breath.
“No,” he said. “Performing in front of all the kids at school and a panel of judges doesn’t sound like much fun to me.”
I heaved a sigh of relief and grinned at him.
“Good.”
“Does that smile mean you plan on entering?” he asked.
“Yep,” I said. “I didn’t want to compete against you, though.”
He smiled. “So, what will you sing?”
I didn’t even ask how he knew I planned to sing. We both knew my talents. Unless I wanted to bring our hens to roost on the stage and gather their eggs, singing was my only real option.
“I don’t know yet,” I said, “but I’ll figure it out.” I started to turn around. “You can go back to your…rain listening now.” He rolled his eyes as I headed back inside.
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