In his follow-up to the award-winning Ring On Deli, Eric Giroux returns to the hard-luck hamlet of Pennacook, Massachusetts, for a hilarious and potent novel about a misfit's quest to save the local democracy. Wendy Zhou has just lost her father and is off to a brawling start in decrepit Pennacook, where wild boar roam the streets and dumpster living is the next big thing. She finds a new sense of mission after joining the other middle-schoolers staffing the town paper, the Pennacook Beat. But when dark forces aim to sell the town ("some assembly required") and plunk a giant dome over it, can a still-shattered Wendy find the strength to fight them? And why does Graham Bundt-the supposed John Adams descendant who rules the Beat like some sloppy Perry White-keep tormenting Wendy with picayune assignments and inane Fun Fridays? Wendy tells the tale as a college senior rewriting Zodiac Pets, her account of the Pennacook Dome debacle. She's inspired to add new chapters in which she travels down the East Coast with Lena Ko-not only her chauffeur but her troubled and much-loved girlfriend-to interview her former Beat colleagues for the book. In the process of rewriting, she takes a fresh look at Pennacook, herself, and even the rascally Graham.