The past few days I have found my thoughts growing darker and darker as Trump continues to win primaries and people continue to cling to their racism instead of giving it up for a chance at a better home for future generations. I stock shelves thinking the world is going up in flames, that some people like to watch the world burn (and not the good kind of Bern). Then, when I feel most hopeless, I remember that my friend Emily wrote a book! A book filled with mystery and adventure. A book filled with friendship and family. A book filled with injustice and the teenagers who right the scales of injustice through mischief, through pranks, through targeting those at the source of the injustice.

Friends, Emily Humpherys (who also blogs regularly at www.emilyhumpherys.com) wrote a book called The Dark Ferret Society and it’s for purchase right now on Amazon. Here’s the link:The Dark Ferret Society. Go buy it right now because it’s truly delightful! I had the privilege to read and review it before it was published.

The Dark Ferret Society is a coming-of-age story about a redheaded (my kinda family) girl by the name of Ruby Fink (great name, right?). Ruby’s the daughter of famous photographer, Frank Fink, and that means they move on a regular basis, going wherever Frank’s work takes him. Therefore, Ruby’s family is grounded in rituals, routines that bind them to each other and their temporary homes as opposed to a particular location or town. Each new house means a new dining room table, a new school, new people that Ruby barely comes to call friends, until she attends Desert Academy in Snowflake, Arizona and that all changes.

Over the course of her time at Desert Academy, Ruby is initiated into The Dark Ferret Society. The DFS is a secret group at the high school who prank both the school and specific individuals. The nature of the pranks are to right the wrongs that have occurred at Desert Academy, to bring justice to the students who are picked on and to the teachers who are tormented by wealthy students who can get away with anything.

The book is full of secrets, adventure is around every corner, and whimsy is throughout. It wouldn’t be an Emily Humpherys novel without whimsical characters, without hilarious pranks, without the love that binds friends and family together. This YA novel will warm your heart while making you shout in surprise (and often in outrage, too) at every twist and turn. If you’re looking for the next best book to read, look no further: The Dark Ferret Society is just for you (or your kids)(or both!).

This quote is taken from the beginning of the book and gives you a taste of the ritual, of the adventure, of the Ruby Fink I have come to know and love:

“Ruby Fink sat on a bench across the street from Desert Academy writing on her canvas tennis shoes. Ruby considered herself a professional at beginnings, so much so that she started all of her first days the same. She brushed a strand of her long, red hair away from her face as she inked Snowflake, Arizona in an arc near Copenhagen, Denmark and Istanbul, Turkey on her left shoe. She didn’t remember when she started turning her favorite pair of tennis shoes into a passport, but the Shoe Tradition was important. This way, every place she lived traveled with her, every place her parents dared to call home collected on her feet…Ruby took a deep breath and whispered “Geronimo!” to herself as she stepped over the sidewalk and onto school grounds.”

May you take a deep breath and whisper “Geronimo!” as you step into adventure and into Ruby’s trusty, traveled shoes.