The Sundown Rule

When I was little I had all kinds of tanks and fish bowls in my room that I set up for the animals I found in the woods and in Marl Lake. I caught snails and dragonfly larvae and crawdads and tadpoles so I could have my own Marl Lake right in my room. I brought in so many animals Dad made a rule called the sundown rule, which said that by sundown I had to let every animal go in the place where I’d found him. Louise and her dad live an idyllic life surrounded by nature. When he gets an assignment to go to Brazil to write an article for a magazine, Louise has to go live in a suburb with her aunt and uncle, leaving her cat, Cash, behind, since Aunt Kay is allergic to animals. Her dad says that it will be for only six weeks, and that everything will be okay. But it isn't, especially when Cash gets hit by a car and dies. Or when a new friend's dad shoots a crow for no reason. Or when her own dad gets sick, really sick, and might not be coming home. Like her previous book, Lizard Love, Wendy Townsend's finely observed story of a girl's love of all things wild and free is a powerful testimony to our natural world.