The year is 1943. Rachel is an imaginative eight-year-old girl who lives on a dairy farm with her parents. Though her home in the green hills of Vermont is far from the daily tragedies of World War II, Rachel still feels the pain of loss. Her older sister, Emily, has recently died of pneumonia, leaving Rachel without her guiding light.

Though Emily's death makes Rachel feel as if the world has stopped spinning, she is called on to find reserves of imagination and grit-even channel her sister. As Rachel struggles to cope, she grapples with suspicions that her teacher is somehow to blame for Emily's fatal illness. She also hones her story-writing skills, survives a night lost in the woods, and plays the queen in the school play.

By the time the war is ending, Rachel is ten and beginning to understand that she has the ability and will to live outside her more extroverted sister's shadow. Filled with bittersweet moments, The Quiet One is not just a heart-wrenching story about coping with loss and finding the strength to go on. It is also an inspirational tale for young readers who are ready to step up and take the lead in their own lives.