Ten Miles Past Normal

Ten Miles Past Normal by Frances O’Roark Dowell

Janie Gorman's life is far from normal. When Janie's parents decided to leave suburbia and become goat farmers, Janie was all for it. But that was five years ago, and now that she's trying to fit into high school, being known as the goat girl is not working for her. Enter Monster and the Jam Band. In an attempt to impress a cute boy at shool, Janie follows her friends Sarah to Jam Band, an after school club where musicians get together to, well...jam. When Sarah decides after five minutes that Jam Band isn't for her, Janie finds herself learning to play bass with help from a guy named Monster. Add to the mix a civil rights project and a hootenanny planned by her mother, and Janie begins to discover that "normal" is not all it's cracked up to be.