"Were going to emigrate", The words dropped into Lesley's mind innocently...and exploded like a bomb. Emigrating meant leaving home for-ever. She couldn't beleive it. But her father had made up his mind."We're going where we can live on an edge...without challenges, We rot, mind, soul and body."Life on border Kibbutz in Isreal turns out to be one challenge after another for Lesley, who has always taken "the good life" for granted. At home she was popular, successful at school, and trendily dressed. Now it's all gone. A stranger in a strange land , she has to start from scratch, and that includes learning a new language, doing manual work and sharing sleeping quarters with three others — one of them a boy. And just across the river Jordan she can see the enemy. Lesley doesn't think she'll ever adjust, or that she even wants to. But that's before the ultimate challenge of a full-scale war brings her to a new undestanding of her family, her people, and herself.

Author Biography: Lynne Reid Banks was born in London. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, she acted and wrote for the repertory stage. Later, she turned to journalism, becoming one of Britain's first female television news reporters. In 1962 she emigrated to Israel, where she married a sculptor, had three sons and taught for eight years in a kibbutz. She now lives with her husband in England. She writes, travels, and visits schools, at home and abroad, full-time. Among Lynne Reid Banks's popular novels for young readers are Angela and Diabola; Harry the Poisonous Centipede; The Fairy Rebel; The Farthest-Away Mountain; The Adventures of King Midas; The Magic Hare; Maura's Angel; and theaward-winning Indian in the Cupboard books.

Fourteen-year-old Lesley is upset when her parents abandon their comfortable life in Canada for a kibbutz in Israel prior to the 1967 war.

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