Nick Quartermaster is terrified of talking, so he writes - letter after letter after letter, to everyone he knows - his newly unemployed father, his annoying sisters, his popular, charismatic best friend, the eccentric folks on his rural Adirondack paper route, and a weird girl at school who just won't leave him alone. Add to that the inhabitant of a mysterious house on the route and the counselors his father insists he meet with . . .Wait - counselors?Nick knows he is the most well-adjusted kid in town, so why are the adults in his life trying to analyze him? If there are secrets within, Nick doesn't have the time or inclination to uncover them. He's too busy trying to find his own place in the world around him.When he takes on his paper route, he has one thing in mind - to help support his family - but what Nick soon realizes is that the route is far more than a job. It's a journey.