How Not to Drown - by Jaimee Wriston (Hardcover)

How Not to Drown is a poignant portrait of a family struggling to cope with tragedy, told through the eyes of Amelia MacQueen, a former model whose undisciplined granddaughter turns her fastidious, controlled life upside down.

When Heaven, the daughter of drug addicts, is awarded temporary custody after her mother's conviction for Gavin's suspicious drowning, Amelia reluctantly takes her in but asks her to call her Grandmelia instead of Grandma, a name that doesn't make Amelia feel quite so old.

Through the wall between their rooms, Uncle Daniel spins Celtic tales from the Isle of Skye, where the family's ancestors lived, including fifteen-year-old Maggie, who mysteriously disappeared crossing the Atlantic many years ago.

Heaven decides that the best way to deal with bullying at school is to become a siren from one of Uncle Daniel's stories, and she sings "drowning songs" in the swim team pool, luring mean girl Bethany Harrison under at the deep end.

When Heaven goes missing during a dangerous storm one night, Amelia is forced to reexamine her outlook on family.

This vividly written novel explores the bonds that make and break a family and the transformative power of storytelling.