In Elise's notebook there is a page of tally marks for each day she has spent at her new school. Five tally marks is five words spoken that day. Her favorite days are days when there are no tally marks. Elise will find, however, that after months of not speaking, she may no longer be able to, not even to keep her only friend from drifting away from her or even to ask if anyone else had seen their teacher's stuffed raven come to life. Elise will learn a valuable lesson about words, how they can both wound someone, and heal them.