What Happened Then

＂Get ready for a smart, fun, sharply written, page-turning heart-clencher of a story. I would follow Avery and Jax anywhere. And I will read everything Erin Soderberg Downing writes.＂ - Natalie Lloyd, bestselling author of Hummingbird and The Witching Wind

In this alternating narrative by bestselling author Erin Soderberg Downing, a decades-old family secret is buried within the sand, water, and woods... waiting for cousins Avery and Jax to find it and uncover the truth.

Avery is a firecracker. In a crayon box of colors, she’s the shocking pink and laser lemon, when all she wants is to be a quiet tan or soft cornflower blue. Her cousin, Jax, is a wall flower, because sometimes it’s better to stay quiet when the alternative is to be told that you’re doing or saying everything wrong. They seem to be the only ones who don’t know what happened years ago when their family shattered and went off in different directions.

When their beloved Aunt Robbie summons the large, estranged family together for a gathering at their broken-down family cabin on Crooked Lake, instead of getting the answer, Aunt Robbie delivers some devastating news. Avery and Jax learn that by the end of the summer, the island that’s been a part of their family for generations is going up for sale.

Forced to stay on the island with their estranged family to get it into shape to sell, Avery and Jax begin to dig through the history of the long-abandoned house and its contents... including a sprinkling of diary pages that were hidden around the island decades ago, the summer their family was torn apart.

In this alternating narrative by bestselling author Erin Soderberg Downing, two cousins are finally beginning to understand the joy of family--however cracked and imperfect theirs might be. But if they have any chance of gluing their broken family back together, they’ll have to first figure out what happened then.

Erin Soderberg Downing grew up exploring the forests and lakes of Northern Minnesota, and to this day, her best ideas for stories often come to her deep in the woods, where she can find plenty of creative space to explore and imagine. She has written more than fifty books, including The Great Peach Experiment series (a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection), the magical middle-grade novel Moon Shadow, and the Puppy Pirates chapter book series. Erin currently lives in Minneapolis with her husband, three adventurous kids, and two very fluffy dogs.