• Age: 9 to 13
• Grade: 4 to 8
• Reading age: 9 to 13

Mischa "Ish" Love knows she'll be one of the first settlers on Mars. She's applied to - and been rejected from - the Mars Now project forty-seven times, but the mission won't leave for ten years, and Ish hasn't given up hope. She also hasn't given up hope that Tig will be her best friend again. When Ish collapses on the first day of seventh grade, she gets a diagnosis that threatens all her future plans. As Ish fights cancer, she dreams in vivid detail about the Martian adventures she's always known she'd have - and makes unexpected discoveries about love, fate, and her place in the vast universe.

Karen Rivers is the author of numerous novels, mostly for young adults. Her books have been nominated for a number of awards, including the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize and the Silver Birch Award. Karen has a BA in International Relations, which makes her an asset on any trivia team that emphasizes global politics in the late 1980s or early 1990s. As a lifelong hypochondriac, she once thought she'd be a doctor but realizes now that writing is a much more sensible career choice as it allows enough time to research symptoms on Google without having to actually go to medical school. Karen lives, reads and writes in a yellow house near the beach in Victoria, British Columbia, and can almost always be found online at www.karenrivers.com.

Karen Rivers' profile page

“A worthwhile and affecting odyssey.”

Kirkus Reviews

“This book packs an emotional punch . . . [A] heartbreaking and sharply wry tale about friendship, family, fate, and illness.”

School Library Journal

“Mischa’s unique voice and way of perceiving the world are consistently absorbing, and her additional struggles with losing her best (and only) friend and coming to terms with being adopted expand it far beyond her illness … A star-bright story of love, courage, and unflagging spirit.” Starred review

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