Listen and They Will Tell You

“Listen and They Will Tell You” is the story of an 11-year-old Southern California girl from an affluent background who is suddenly thrust into the unfamiliar rural environment of an Angora goat farm on a small island in Lake Michigan. Jen must work through her own conflicted emotions and face challenges posed by the new surroundings and by an aunt who is definitely odd. By the end of the story, she has succeeded in ways she never thought possible.

“But I don’t want to stay with Crazy Aunt Kate,” 11-year-old Jen exclaims when her mother explains that Jen must stay for a semester with her aunt on an angora goat farm on an island in Lake Michigan. From Southern California, Jen faces not only a breath-stopping Arctic weather but an unfamiliar kind of school—grades K through 12, new people, farm animals, and an aunt who just might be crazy. And she’s worried about her mother who has to go away for a rest, which is the reason Jen has been sent to the island.

To her dismay, Jen finds she’s afraid of the goats and that her aunt is definitely strange. She must break into the circle of girls her age and deal with the nasty Bruce who taunts her. But she makes a friend and they have various adventures from kidnapping a cat to have it spayed, to making maple syrup with a boy Jen finds so attractive that she’s shy around him. Worried about her mother, Jen tries to run away to go back to California. In the end, Jen and her friends make money to start a neutering and spaying program for dogs and cats on the island and in a dramatic climax Jen finds she has conquered her fear of goats.

The story is not only about girls striving, overcoming fears, and making a contribution to society, but is also about gaining maturity and learning to appreciate differences in people and how they think and live.