Mosquitoland 

After her parents’ divorce, Mim, sixteen, is forced to move with her father and stepmother a thousand miles away. She is having trouble adjusting to all the changes. Her father thinks she is suffering from mental illness, and doctor-shops until he finds one who will medicate Mim. She gets in some trouble at school. When the principal calls her parents in for a meeting, Mim is called to the office. She overhears part of their conversation, and what she hears sends her on a journey to try to get back to her mother. Along the way, she meets some strange characters and forms something of her own family with Walt, a teenage boy with Down’s Syndrome, and Beck, a handsome college guy.

Author David Arnold has created a compelling story with realistic, well-developed characters that will grab teen readers and others. It is cleverly written in first person, and through a journal Mim keeps that is really a letter to someone named Iz. This method allows Arnold to fill in all the back-story without resorting to information dumps. The voice is pitch-perfect for a highly intelligent but confused young woman. This is a winner.