In a Handful of Dust — Mindy McGinnis

This gritty and powerful novel about the strength in small steps and an epic journey to find home is a companion to the highly praised "Not a Drop to Drink."

"The only thing bigger than the world is fear."

Lucy s life by the pond has always been full. She has water and friends, laughter and the love of her adoptive mother, Lynn, who has made sure that Lucy s childhood was very different from her own. Yet it seems Lucy s future is settled already a house, a man, children, and a water source and anything beyond their life by the pond is beyond reach.

When disease burns through their community, the once life-saving water of the pond might be the source of what s killing them now. Rumors of desalinization plants in California have lingered in Lynn s mind, and the prospect of a normal life for Lucy sets the two of them on an epic journey west to face new dangers: hunger, mountains, deserts, betrayal, and the perils of a world so vast that Lucy fears she could be lost forever, only to disappear in a handful of dust.