Colby Utterback: Finding His Place

By Jackie L. Smith

Colby Utterback is fifteen, broke, and invisible.
He stocks shelves at the only grocery store in Corbin, Idaho. He puts money on the kitchen table that disappears before morning. He counts his little brother's breaths at night because nobody else will.
One evening, Colby walks through the back of the storeroom and steps into the Kentucky wilderness of 1781. A man named Skunk takes him in. A one-eared dog named Founder chooses him. And for nine months, Colby learns to track, hunt, trade, and stand his ground in a world where survival depends on what your hands can do - not what your last name is.
When a catastrophic flood threatens a gathering of frontier families, Colby must risk everything to save the people who took him in. What he earns will change his family's life. What he learns will change his.
Colby Utterback: Finding His Place is a portal fantasy about a boy who walks into the woods with nothing and comes back with everything that matters.

For readers ages 10-14 who loved Hatchet, My Side of the Mountain, and The Sign of the Beaver.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GSZTFTMZ
• ISBN13: 9798252624532
• Release Date: March 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"