Charlie's perfectly ordinary life has been unraveling ever since his war journalist father was injured in Afghanistan. When his father heads from California to Virginia for medical treatment, Charlie reluctantly travels cross-country with his boy-crazy sister, unruly brothers, and a mysterious new family friend. He decides that if he can spot all the birds that he and his father were hoping to see someday along the way, then everything might just turn out okay. Sally J. Pla has written a tale that is equal parts madcap road trip, coming-of-age story of a boy who feels he docsn't understand the world, and uplifting portrait of a family overcoming a crisis.