Excerpt from As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth by Lynne Rae Perkins, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

It felt good to have his shoes off. Ry pulled his socks off, too, and scooted himself around to where he could get his feet in the water. This was so nice that for half a minute, he forgot how he came to be sitting there. Then he remembered, and said some words. There was one word in particular that he said over and over and over. He said it until it didn't even sound like a word anymore. Until he felt almost calm. Then he said to himself, "It's not the end of the world," and that was true. It wasn't the end of the world at all. It might, though, be the middle of nowhere.

Excerpted from As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth by Lynne Rae Perkins. Copyright © 2010 by Lynne Rae Perkins. Excerpted by permission of Greenwillow Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.