Exit, Pursued by a Bear
CBC Books | CBC | Posted: February 27, 2017 3:04 PM | Last Updated: April 26, 2018
E.K. Johnston
Hermione Winters is captain of her cheerleading team, and in tiny Palermo Heights, this doesn't mean what you think it means. At PHHS, the cheerleaders don't cheer for the sports teams; they are the sports team — the pride and joy of a tiny town. The team's summer training camp is Hermione's last and marks the beginning of the end of... she's not sure what. She does know this season could make her a legend. But during a camp party, someone slips something in her drink. And it all goes black.
In every class, there's a star cheerleader and a pariah pregnant girl. They're never supposed to be the same person. Hermione struggles to regain the control she's always had and faces a wrenching decision about how to move on. The assault wasn't the beginning of Hermione Winter's story and she's not going to let it be the end. She won't be anyone's cautionary tale. (From Penguin Young Readers Group)
From the book
I start running after school. Usually I get enough of a workout between practice and gym class that I don't do extra, but this week I feel like I might explode if I stop moving. So I run. I run up and down the streets of Palermo, looking at the houses and coloured leaves on the trees and trying to hold on to the feeling that my body is my own and limitless. I run on the country roads, the gravel crunching under my feet — until the smell of pine makes me feel sick and I fly back to the safety of concrete sidewalks. I run and run, and when I finally fall asleep at night, I am tried enough that I don;t remember my dreams.
From Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E.K. Johnston ©2016. Published by Penguin Young Readers Group.