Orbiting Jupiter

Gary D. Schmidt

Oct 2015 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

In this riveting novel, two boys discover the true meaning of family and the sacrifices it requires.

Two-time Newbery Honor winner Gary D. Schmidt delivers the shattering story of Joseph, a father at thirteen, who has never seen his daughter, Jupiter.

After spending time in a juvenile facility, he’s placed with a foster family on a farm in rural Maine. Here Joseph, damaged and withdrawn, meets twelve-year-old Jack, who narrates the account of the troubled, passionate teen who wants to find his baby at any cost.

When Jack meets his new foster brother, he knows three things about him:

• Joseph almost killed a teacher.
• He was incarcerated at a place called Stone Mountain.
• He has a daughter. Her name is Jupiter. And he has never seen her.

What Jack doesn't know, at first, is how desperate Joseph is to find his baby girl. Or how urgently he, Jack, will want to help.

But the past can't be shaken off.  Even as new bonds form, old wounds reopen. The search for Jupiter demands more from Jack than he can imagine.

This tender, heartbreaking novel is Gary D. Schmidt at his best. He is the author of the Printz Honor and Newbery Honor Book Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy; Okay for Now, a National Book Award finalist; and The Wednesday Wars, a Newbery Honor Book, among his many acclaimed novels for young readers.

Ratings and reviews

This book is one of my absolute favorites, from the moment I'd read the previews to waiting for the book in mail, to the very last line in the book, I never stopped enjoying it. Gary D. Schmidt's writing. It was so heart warming but just the same heart breaking. I ended the story wishing for more, for a better ending, wishing for better for the character I had come to love.

I love this book this it one of the two books that helped me realize I love reading this is a book that I will never get sick of

This story is one of the best books out there my reading teacher just finished the book today in class and me her and a few other people started to cry at the end of the book

About the author

Gary D. Schmidt is the bestselling author of The Labors of Hercules Beal; Just Like That; National Book Award finalist Okay for Now; Pay Attention, Carter Jones; Orbiting Jupiter; the Newbery Honor and Printz Honor Book Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy; and the Newbery Honor Book The Wednesday Wars. He is also contributor to and co-editor of the acclaimed short story collection A Little Bit Super, co-edited by Leah Henderson. He lives in rural Michigan.