Being Fishkill

Fishkill Carmel fends for herself, with her fists if need be -- until a thwarted lunch theft introduces her to strange, sunny Duck-Duck and a chance for a new start.

Born in the backseat of a moving car, Carmel Fishkill was unceremoniously pushed into a world that refuses to offer her security, stability, love. At age thirteen, she begins to fight back. Carmel Fishkill becomes Fishkill Carmel, who deflects her tormenters with a strong left hook and conceals her secrets from teachers and social workers. But Fishkill's fierce defenses falter when she meets eccentric optimist Duck-Duck Farina, and soon they, along with Duck-Duck's mother, Molly, form a tentative family, even as Fishkill struggles to understand her place in it. This fragile new beginning is threatened by the reappearance of Fishkill's unstable mother -- and by unfathomable tragedy. Poet Ruth Lehrer's young adult debut is a stunning, revelatory look at what defines and sustains "family." And, just as it does for Fishkill, meeting Duck-Duck Farina and her mother will leave readers forever changed.

Author: Ruth Lehrer
Publisher: Candlewick Press (MA)
Published: 11/14/2017
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 8.60h x 5.60w x 1.10d
ISBN13: 9780763684426
ISBN10: 0763684422
BISAC Categories:
- Young Adult Fiction | Social Themes | Physical & Emotional Abuse (see also Social
- Young Adult Fiction | Social Themes | Poverty & Homelessness
- Young Adult Fiction | Family | Alternative Family

About the Author
Ruth Lehrer is a poet, author, and American Sign Language interpreter. She lives in the woods of western Massachusetts.