Cascadia's Call

Still grieving her father's recent death and the loss of her comfortable biracial nuclear American family life, fourteen-year-old Ari struggles to adjust to her new life in Portland, Oregon, with a loving but unfamiliar extended Indian family. When Ari steals her mother's necklace and escapes to the forest, she accidentally plunges into a terrifying world of wild birds in the underbelly of Portland's Forest Park trails.Ari soon realizes that more than her return home is at stake: Birds are mysteriously dying, threatening a war between species-and her necklace is the only thing protecting her. Can Ari bring peace to the forest and find her way home? And where exactly is home when all she wants to do is run away?A middle-grade coming-of-age story, Cascadia's Call is about finding your voice and learning how to belong when all you do is stand out.

NEHA N. HEWITT is a first-generation Indian American, mother, lawyer, writer, and leader of various book clubs. She earned a bachelor of arts in international affairs from the George Washington University and a juris doctor from American University's Washington College of Law. A civil rights lawyer for twenty years, Neha is dedicated to promoting diverse stories for youth audiences and for children with dyslexia and other disabilities. A set of her poems on yoga and social justice have been published in the online journal Mindful Word.Neha currently resides in Portland, Oregon, with her husband, two teenage daughters, and two Siberian cats. You can find her most days after work either frantically driving to soccer practice or collapsing on the couch with chocolate and tea, devouring her most recent book club pick. Cascadia's Call is her first novel.