Teenage years can be complicated, even when you haven't been abandoned by your mother at age ten. It is the 1980s and teenage Gemma lives with her well-meaning father, Nathaniel, goes to 'art therapy' once a week and tries to come to terms with growing up motherless. She collects facts about her long lost mother, Angie (height, weight, eye-colour, mint lip-gloss) and develops a rare syndrome she calls PMMSM, People-Make-Me-Stupid-Mad. Then comes the strange, almost unthinkable news: Angie is back, attending church in a nearby town. She is ready to return to motherhood, and to prove it, she has adopted a Korean infant. Then an invitation: would Gemma like to stay with a family in Angie's community over the summer? Gemma, who has never had a friend in her life, suddenly finds herself living in a house full of God-fearing teenagers, and every Sunday, facing the prospect of maybe, just maybe, seeing a mother she is pretty sure she hates.

Lisa Murphy-Lamb was born in Kamloops, BC, and grew up in the shadow of the mountains in Calgary, Alberta. Throughout her studies, which included a Bachelor of Education from the University of Calgary and a master`s in inclusive education from McGill, Lisa has focused on ways to enlighten and educate learners of all types. From this basis, storytelling and ultimately writing were natural extensions. A lifelong and avid traveller, Lisa`s journeys across the globe have given her a rich palette from which to draw for her narratives. Lisa lives in Calgary with her husband and two-full time Dinosaur Hunters, Maxwell and Charlie.

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