No Matter the Distance

by Cindy Baldwin

Overview

An unexpected animal companion helps a girl with cystic fibrosis learn to write her own story in this captivating novel in verse by award-winning author and disabled activist Cindy Baldwin.

Penny Rooney has cystic fibrosis, which means she has to do breathing treatments to help her lungs work. Some days, it seems like her CF is the only thing Penny knows about herself for sure.

From her point of view, everyone around her can make sense of their place in the world. So why can’t Penny even begin to write a poem about herself for school?

Then during spring break Penny spots something impossible in the creek behind her house: a dolphin, far from its home. Penny names the dolphin Rose and feels an immediate bond, since the dolphin is also sick.

But as Penny’s CF worsens, she realizes that Rose needs to return to her pod to get better. Will Penny be able to help guide Rose back to the ocean, even if it means losing her friend?

This heartwarming story, which marks the first time an author with cystic fibrosis is writing a protagonist with CF, will transport readers into a world full of friendship, family, and powerful self-discovery.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063006454
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/09/2024
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	240,837
Product dimensions:	5.12(w) x 7.62(h) x (d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Cindy Baldwin is the award-winning author of Where the Watermelons Grow, Beginners Welcome, and The Stars of Whistling Ridge. She is a disabled activist, cofounder of Middle Grade at Heart, and We Need Diverse Books mentor. She lives just outside Portland, Oregon, with her husband and daughter. To learn more about Cindy, visit cindybaldwinbooks.com.

Editorial Reviews

"Full of wonder and compassion, No Matter the Distance is a memorable story about friendship, an unbreakable connection, and finding the strength to fight for those we love. Penny is a unique yet relatable character, with an authentic and entertaining story." — Lynne Kelly, author of Song For a Whale

"No Matter the Distance weaves an intimate, personal story of life with cystic fibrosis and a universal story of self-discovery into a luminous tale of friendship, family, and belonging." — Joy McCullough, author of A Field Guide to Getting Lost

"No Matter the Distance hooked me hard from the beginning and just swept me through with so much heart and resonance throughout." — Stephanie Burgis, author of The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart

"Positive empathy is wrapped around a fastpaced story with fully developed characters." — Booklist (starred review)

“Poignantly navigates an array of tough emotions." — Kirkus Reviews

“An insightful telling of a tween living with CF via affecting free-verse poems.” — Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

02/27/2023

Baldwin (The Stars of Whistling Ridge) pulls from her own experience with cystic fibrosis, as outlined in an author’s note, to construct an insightful telling of a tween living with CF via affecting free-verse poems. Eleven-year-old Penny Rooney can’t believe her eyes when she spots a dolphin in her North Carolina backyard creek. But after Penny learns her best friend Cricket is moving away and she experiences her worst CF flare in years, her passive interest in the visiting dolphin, which she names Rose, develops into an emotional, psychic bond, through which she and the dolphin share mental images of their experiences. When experts from the nearby Duke University marine biology station come to investigate the dolphin’s appearance, they reveal that Rose is ill and must either return to the ocean or risk further health complications. As Penny wrestles with devastating farewells to both Cricket and Rose, she struggles with worsening flare-ups. Penny’s challenges with loneliness and letting go while managing CF are sincerely detailed, potently centering specific accounts of the daily realities of a girl living with a chronic illness, and how those experiences shape the world around her. Characters cue as white. Ages 8–12. Agent: Elizabeth Harding, Curtis Brown. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

02/01/2023

Gr 3–7—Sixth grader Penny has cystic fibrosis, but she's not a tragic figure. She's sick, but a full person. This novel-in-verse follows a framing device of Penny's poetry slam identity assignment, drawn out against her best friend moving, a CF health dip, and best of all, a dolphin floundering in her backyard creek. The poetry angle is slight—the words are straightforward, without many poetic elements—but it does make this story fast-paced. Baldwin notes that she has read books about characters with cystic fibrosis, but never written by someone who had the diagnosis. To her they felt cheap, mawkish. She changes that with this novel, and the difference in hearing it from her mouth is palpable. Cystic fibrosis is a plot point but not the plot point. This quick read also manages to show terrific character growth. Penny accepts the full spectrum of emotion. She realizes she can be lucky and angry, terrified and brave simultaneously. Main characters are cued as white. VERDICT This book will draw upper elementary and lower middle grade students in with the cute animal relationship but will keep them engaged with the emotionally complex, nuanced depiction of a young girl with cystic fibrosis.—Cat McCarrey

School Library Journal

2022-11-16
A girl with cystic fibrosis forms a special bond with a dolphin.

Eleven-year-old Penny Rooney is thrilled when her teacher announces a poetry slam for sixth graders. However, the theme proves daunting: What does she know about herself? She knows she’s more than her CF, with its nebulizer treatments, digestive enzymes, and periodic hospitalizations. But sometimes it feels like she knows more about members of her close-knit family than herself and that she and best friend Cricket are practically the same person. When Cricket reveals she’s moving from North Carolina to Virginia, Penny can’t imagine who she’ll be without her. Her sadness eases when an ill dolphin unexpectedly swims into her backyard creek. To Penny’s amazement, she and the dolphin, whom she names Rose, can communicate telepathically. But Rose will soon have to rejoin her pod. How can Penny say goodbye to two best friends? In introspective free verse, Penny poignantly navigates an array of tough emotions, including the loneliness of being unable to meet peers with CF in person due to infection risks, the guilt of needing her family’s attention, and—notably—the pressure to repress her fear and anger because, as her doctors remind her, things could be worse. Readers navigating chronic illness will particularly appreciate Penny’s cathartic, empowering self-discovery. An author’s note explains that Baldwin herself has CF. The Rooneys read White by default.

A thought-provoking take on illness, identity, and long-distance friendship. (Verse novel. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews