A must-read for humans of all ages, this middle grade novel grows up before your very eyes. Painfully shy and lonely, eleven-year-old Mariah Miller hates being a human; she'd rather be an animal so she wouldn't have to go to school and deal with mean old Mrs. Tarbox and her nasty cousin, Travis, who has invaded her life. Enchantment abounds when she finds a magic spearhead on the beach that allows her to talk to a wise old horseshoe crab and a host of other animals. Her father becomes seriously ill, and throughout her trials in the real world, she is often surprised by the unpredictable power of the spearhead. As she travels through time and space, and listens to the wisdom of creatures and people, Mariah makes leaps in her own personal growth, discovers the interdependence of all living things, learns how perspective creates reality, and what it really means to be human.