The Wild Journey of Juniper Berry

Eleven-year-old Juniper Berry lives in a cabin with her family deep in the wild woods. Living off the grid is usually exciting, like the time she chased off three growling raccoons with a tree branch and some acorns, or when she thought she glimpsed the legendary Bigfoot. But her happy life in the wild ends abruptly when her younger brother gets sick, and the family moves to the city to be closer to the hospital.

Juniper and her older sister are sent to live with cousins they hardly know and attend a public school for the first time, which is harder to navigate than the wild woods ever were. Juniper feels like a wolf cub separated from her pack.

When Juniper notices that her cousin, Alayna, is being bullied by so-called friends, she’s ready to fight back like the wild geese do when protecting their goslings, but her cousin tells her to stay out of it; she doesn’t want Juniper making things worse.

As the hospital bills for her brother start piling up, Juniper knows they’ll need to be paid before the family can go back to the woods, so she decides to make enough money to help out. With Alayna’s support, Juniper starts posting videos filled with her wisdom from the woods, hoping to get a following. But what if it doesn’t work? What if the bills never get paid? Not going home to the wild is Juniper’s worst nightmare. But while she’s stuck in the city, she might as well make the most of it, like sticking up for her cousin, for starters.

The Wild Journey of Juniper Berry is a story about perseverance when faced with difficult and unfamiliar challenges, belonging and finding your identity, compassion for others, and learning that our differences can sometimes be our strengths.

Chad Morris loves hiking in the wild from the redwoods to slot canyons. He even wrote parts of this book on an overlook in the mountains, and others in the small woods behind his and Shelly’s house. He loves the views, the animals, and the adventure. But unlike Shelly, he can’t tell you the names of most plants and trees. And if he tried to live in the wild, he’d probably accidentally eat poison roots and trip into a bear. (Not to mention the terrible sunburn he’d get on his bald head.) But he still loves spending time in nature, especially with his wife, Shelly, and their five kids.

Shelly Brown loves the smell of dirt and pine and looked up to the rangers she met as a kid. She wanted to be one until her mother reminded her that she talks too much and would scare away the wildlife. So instead, she writes children’s books with her husband, Chad, so she has someone to talk to. And sometimes they sit down and write in places where it smells like dirt and pine. (Big thanks to whoever invented laptops!)