A Constellation of Minor Bears
Tawnshi & Welcome to the Pacific Crest Trail!
Award-winning author Jen Ferguson has written a powerful story about teens grappling with balancing resentment with enduring friendship—and how to move forward with a life that’s not what they’d imagined.
Before that awful Saturday, Molly used to be inseparable from her brother, Hank, and his best friend, Tray. The indoor climbing accident that left Hank with a traumatic brain injury filled Molly with anger.
​
While she knows the accident wasn’t Tray’s fault, she will never forgive him for being there and failing to stop the damage. But she can’t forgive herself for not being there either.
​
Determined to go on the trio’s postgraduation hike of the Pacific Crest Trail, even without Hank, Molly packs her bag. But when her parents put Tray in charge of looking out for her, she is stuck backpacking with the person who incites her easy anger.
Despite all her planning, the trail she’ll walk has a few more twists and turns ahead. . . .
Discover the evocative storytelling and emotion from the author of The Summer of Bitter and Sweet, which was the winner of the Governor General's Award, a Stonewall Award honor book, and a Morris Award finalist, as well as Those Pink Mountain Nights, a Kirkus Best Book of the Year!
To all my friends (and my foes):
​
If you’ve been following along, if this isn’t your first Jen Ferguson book, you know that I value you the reader and the safety of your heart foremost.
That’s why I want to tell you that this book follows a character who can’t quite figure out how to manage her emotions, and while she knows she shouldn’t, she’s still thinking ableist thoughts about her brother’s accident and subsequent disability in the early pages. It’s also important to say that this book is fat-and-body positive. But since the world is not built for fat bodies (or disabled bodies!), and since my characters are living in this kind of world, the story features instances of fat-abuse and fat-phobia from outside and from adults who should already know better, but never from inside the friend group. There are instances of anti-Indigenous racism, thought and actions.
Take care of yourself while reading in the ways you know work for you. If you’re not ready to read now, that’s completely absolutely okay. Unlike foodstuffs, books don’t have best before dates. Molly, Hank, Brynn, Tray and the Pacific Crest Trail will be waiting when you’re ready.
<3 Jen
