Ava is about to turn 12. She's also about to discover an extraordinary secret about her long-gone mother—and herself.

This thoroughly compelling, gorgeously told tale begins as the weather turns warm enough to swim in the local lake. Ava is on the brink of her twelfth birthday, and her crush, Jeff, is most definitely taking notice of her. Everything is going beautifully. Until Ava starts to grow feathers—all over her shoulders, arms, and back. Horrified, mortified, and clad in a turtleneck, she hides out in her bedroom, missing her dead mother and worrying about the summer, and the rest of her freakish life...

Carolyn Turgeon has a gift for imagining magical worlds. In Ava’s case, this otherworldly place belongs to the Swan Maidens, one of whom is Ava’s mother. Ava goes back and forth between middle school and this magical realm, taking young adult readers along for an exhilarating, extraordinary ride.