Twelve-year-old Maggie is headed to spend the summer in a rented cottage with her father, her stepmother and their new baby. She finds herself in a world where her father is seething with anger and perhaps despair. His marriage is coming apart, he has lost his job, and he hasn't told his new wife. What can a twelve year old hold onto in the midst of this kind of painful turmoil? Out in the marsh, Maggie finds a blue heron, and then realizes that it, too, is threatened by someone who is hunting it with a bow and arrow. Ages 10-13 188 pages