Whenever You Are

What if changing the biggest mistake of your life would be the biggest mistake of your life?

Two teens in juvenile detention may have found a way to free themselves — not just from their cells, but from the mistakes that got them locked up in the first place.

Clem is a would-be poet who has been in “training school” ever since he caused the accident that maimed the nice lady who says she only wants him to do something fine with his life. But how, when even his parents have given up on him?

Then Clem meets Finn, whose history is even more traumatic. Clem tries to help Finn adjust to prison, but when the boys are placed in solitary confinement, euphemistically called “administrative segregation,” Finn deteriorates, both physically and mentally. He’s ranting, saying he’s found a portal in his cell and a way to change their lives — past, present and future.

And then he disappears.

Clem is interrogated by prison officials, a social worker, a doctor and a mysterious man in a suit, who ask him about the days leading up to Finn’s disappearance. As he tells them the story, he puzzles over what really happened to Finn, and the unexpected clues he's left Clem to find a better future.


Key Text Features

afterword

author’s note

biographical note

dialogue

epigraph

poems

scientific nomenclature

1147844247
Whenever You Are

What if changing the biggest mistake of your life would be the biggest mistake of your life?

Two teens in juvenile detention may have found a way to free themselves — not just from their cells, but from the mistakes that got them locked up in the first place.

Clem is a would-be poet who has been in “training school” ever since he caused the accident that maimed the nice lady who says she only wants him to do something fine with his life. But how, when even his parents have given up on him?

Then Clem meets Finn, whose history is even more traumatic. Clem tries to help Finn adjust to prison, but when the boys are placed in solitary confinement, euphemistically called “administrative segregation,” Finn deteriorates, both physically and mentally. He’s ranting, saying he’s found a portal in his cell and a way to change their lives — past, present and future.

And then he disappears.

Clem is interrogated by prison officials, a social worker, a doctor and a mysterious man in a suit, who ask him about the days leading up to Finn’s disappearance. As he tells them the story, he puzzles over what really happened to Finn, and the unexpected clues he's left Clem to find a better future.


Key Text Features

afterword

author’s note

biographical note

dialogue

epigraph

poems

scientific nomenclature

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Whenever You Are

Whenever You Are

by Martine Leavitt
Whenever You Are
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Whenever You Are

Whenever You Are

by Martine Leavitt

Overview

What if changing the biggest mistake of your life would be the biggest mistake of your life?

Two teens in juvenile detention may have found a way to free themselves — not just from their cells, but from the mistakes that got them locked up in the first place.

Clem is a would-be poet who has been in “training school” ever since he caused the accident that maimed the nice lady who says she only wants him to do something fine with his life. But how, when even his parents have given up on him?

Then Clem meets Finn, whose history is even more traumatic. Clem tries to help Finn adjust to prison, but when the boys are placed in solitary confinement, euphemistically called “administrative segregation,” Finn deteriorates, both physically and mentally. He’s ranting, saying he’s found a portal in his cell and a way to change their lives — past, present and future.

And then he disappears.

Clem is interrogated by prison officials, a social worker, a doctor and a mysterious man in a suit, who ask him about the days leading up to Finn’s disappearance. As he tells them the story, he puzzles over what really happened to Finn, and the unexpected clues he's left Clem to find a better future.


Key Text Features

afterword

author’s note

biographical note

dialogue

epigraph

poems

scientific nomenclature

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781779461100
Publisher: Groundwood Books Ltd
Publication date: 08/04/2026
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Age Range: 12 - 18 Years

About the Author

MARTINE LEAVITT is the author of the beloved Buffalo Flats, as well as award-winning books including Calvin (winner, Governor General’s Award), My Book of Life by Angel (finalist, LA Times Book Prize and winner of the Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book of the Year) and Keturah and Lord Death (finalist, National Book Award). She is faculty emerita in the MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Martine lives in High River, Alberta.

Read an Excerpt

“You see, Clemence,” says the warden, “I have a missing child here. Seventeen years old, but still a child. A lot of people are unhappy about that, and they’re blaming me. That’s not a good thing, as I’m sure you can imagine.”

“Sir, yes sir,” I say.

“And you know, we could avoid this whole unpleasant meeting altogether if you could just tell me where Finn is. Now.”

“Sir, I told the CO – “

“Yes, but I mean, this is just between you and me, Clemence,” says the warden. “Just you and me. I’ll have your back. Nothing will be blamed on you. Nobody even needs to know it was you who tipped me off.”

“Sir, yes sir, but – “

I stop. I look down at my notebook. I feel like even though I wrote it, it’s got secrets from me.

“Look, kid, I don’t want to go out this way. Fine, if you won’t tell me, tell them. We just need Finn. Dead or preferably alive.”

He stands, goes to the door, and three people come in.

They all sit on one side of the table, me on the other.

It’s eight eyes to two.

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