It is August 10th. Fourteen-year-old Chase Riley is online writing a heads-up newsletter to his old classmates in the big city of Columbus, Ohio. Chase is now living on a farm sixty miles away, so Chase's dad can have some peace and quiet to study and write after he comes home from his job at the lab. Peace and quiet are the buzzwords. Chase is feeling rebellious at having to be so far away from his friends, but his e-mails are still bright and funny.

It is not that quiet, Chase tells his buddies. The Cicadas in the daytime and the bullfrogs at night make ear-splitting noises. Is this what adults call "the joy of country living?" He knows that his two dogs are in heaven, free to run loose and chase anything that excites them. Unfortunately, they are also learning about skunks and tomato juice baths --- a bitter lesson. Even Chase smelled of skunk for awhile!

Then there is the matter of making new friends. Chase keeps to himself when school starts and spends his time writing e-mails to his newsletter group and his sister, Mallory, at Kent State. He doesn't seem to be settling in to his new school environment, and the school guidance counselor is becoming worried. For Chase, writing e-mails has taken the place of forming friendships.

I hope that most young readers will find the main character, Chase Riley, cool. He is an amazingly talented fourteen-year-old with obvious gifts in writing and computer literacy. His intelligence, fierce independence, and wry humor will help him to handle the adjustment of leaving the city for the country, making new friends, and coping with the other events in life's journey.

   ---Reviewed by Jean Marchand (marchand@ida.net)