Before the Fireflies Come Out

The summer Callie was twelve, her mother made an unexpected announcement: they were going to visit Aunt Ruth-and the chicken farm. After two years of grief since her father's death, Callie is ready for something different. What she finds on the farm is more than she bargained for. There are coops to clean, eggs to collect, and the mystery of candling an egg in a darkened cellar where you can see, with the right light, whether something inside is alive or not.
There is Aunt Ruth - tireless, warm, paid in silver dollars for work she finishes with perfect hands-and Uncle Walt, who teaches by doing and never once asks if you're ready to learn. And then there is the last day. The day Callie can't run from. Before the Fireflies Come Out is a coming-of-age novella about one unforgettable week on an egg farm-the kind of week that teaches you about hard work and kindness and the way life ends before you're ready, and stays in you long after everything else is gone.
For readers who believe that the most important things are learned in ordinary places, by ordinary people, when no one is paying attention.