Wichita native and Newbery Medal-winning author Clare Vanderpool has crafted a second novel just as compelling and heart-wrenching as Moon Over Manifest, a feat not easy to accomplish after such a successful first book.  Fourteen year-old Jack Baker leaves his native Kansas hometown after the death of his mother to attend a Maine bordering school near to his father's naval base.  The loss of his mother is even bigger than an ordinary loss of a parent--with his father's absence during World War II, he's lost the only parent he really knew. 

An outsider to a new world around him, Jack finds himself in complicated friendship with another outsider, Early Auden.  Early reads the numbers of Pi like a story, blending the reality of his life around him with the story and the numbers. Together, the two embark on a journey to find Pi, Jack thinking he's going along to keep himself from loneliness and to keep Early safe.  As they encounter compelling characters and dangerous adventures along the way, Jack learns that their quest is about a lot more than an elusive number.  It's just as much his journey as Early's.