7An unusual and captivating novel brimming with a sense of can-do and earned independence.

With frostbitten fingers, sleepless nights, and sore muscles, fourteen-year-old Jackson Jones and his posse of cousins discover the lost art of winging it when they take over an orchard of three hundred wild apple trees. They know nothing about pruning or irrigation or pest control, but if they are to avoid losing the $8,000 they owe on an unfair contract with their neighbor, Mrs. Nelson, they just have to figure it out.