Pip dreads every soccer match. His father is always there, yelling and arguing, pushing him to be more like his older brother a winner. Plus, there's the girl next door who outshines him on the field and overlooks him off of it. Then one day, Pip stumbles into a new world inside a rock-climbing gym. He even stumbles into a new, cooler name: Phil. But he still has to find a way to break free from the old world and his father's grip. An award-winning New Zealand author makes her U.S. debut with this powerful novel.
"And in the unreal twilight of the deserted Igloo, it was as if someone else had taken over my body . . . and my mind. Suddenly I wasn't Pip McLeod, forever messing up. Pip; Pippin; Piphead; Pipsqueak: battling to be the son Dad wanted, and never even coming close. No-this was a new me, Philip McLeod, who'd been hidden away somewhere deep inside . . . who with each new handhold, was slowly but surely clambering his way out."