Since her father's death, Cat has taken care of her brother, Chicken, for their hardworking mother but while spending time with grandparents they never knew, Cat has the chance to be a child again.

Great changes are in store for the highly creative and somewhat eccentric Applewhite family when money problems force them to open a summer camp for gifted children, who almost immediately begin to rebel, while a mysterious interloper watches from the woods.

"When seventh-grader Eleanor reads an article online claiming that an asteroid will hit Earth in April, she starts an underground school club to prepare kids for the end of the world as we know it."--