In the tradition of A Year Down Yonder, Jack Gantos's Joey Pigza books, and Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars, this brilliant debut novel is realistic fiction at its finest--and a story so funny that kids will eat it up.

12 year-old twins Percy and Penny and their little brother are parked on their uncle's farm for the summer after their mom lands in jail (for political reasons) and their minister dad runs away to Hawaii with his pretty (unfortunately for Percy and Penny) accountant. Cranky and rebellious, brother and sister 1. Survives a tornado (him) 2. Climbs a windmill to get cellphone reception (her) 3. Gets kicked out of the house and has to sleep in the barn (him). 4. Sends money to Africa (her) 5. Turn 13 (both) 6. Grow up a little (both) 7. Try to understand each other (well, mostly).

When their mom said she was sending twelve-year-old Percy and Penny and their little brother, Pauly, to stay with an uncle they'd never met, she tried to make it sound better by saying that Uncle Stretch's farm was a horse camp. Well, the farm animals are actually chickens and pigs, and the only two horses are mean-tempered and not too keen on being ridden by kids. As Penny puts it, “This farm is like the eighteenth century, but way worse! The water has a rusty taste, and all the meat used to be animals on the farm.” If there is one thing the twins can agree on, it's that between endless chores, no Internet or cell phones, and the prospect that their mom might have to stay in jail (even though some people say she's a hero), horse camp is a big, fat joke. Will they ever have a real family again? Or is there a family for them right here?

Nicole Helget and Nate LeBoutillier have written a funny novel about farms and family, animals and antagonism—and the paths kids take, sometimes while living in the same house, before coming home.