Skip to main content

Between Heaven and Earth

By
Between Heaven and Earth
by Eric Walters
Orca, 2012.  245 pgs. Fiction.

     First in Orca's new SEVEN series, this book tells DJ's story, oldest grandson of David McLean. Grandpa David, recently deceased, has left a bequest and requests for each of his grandsons to perform a task. DJ's is to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and scatter granddad's ashes from the summit. DJ, a take-charge kind of guy, has always felt responsible for watching over and looking out for his twin brother and his cousins. He is honored to be carrying his grandfather's ashes, but since he is a linebacker in excellent shape, that climbing the mountain will be easy-peasy and that he will be back home in less than a week.  However, right off the bat his camping gear is stolen, and in return for getting it back,  he helps a young girl who wants to be a porter go up the mountain with him; he has a demanding tour guide who insists that he do exactly as he is told and travel polepole, Swahili for "slowly," when what he really wants to do is race up the mountain and be done. Gastrointestinal problems and altitude sickness complicate DJ's hike, but he meets people he would never imagine could help him, but who do. DJ is a good boy becoming a good man, but what he learns in Africa will help him become even better. Six more books will follow this strong beginning, telling the stories and quests of the remaining grandsons.  One can only hope they will be as good.  Best-suited for sixth grade readers and on up.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall

By
A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall By Jasmine Warga New York: Harper, 2024. Fiction. 211 pages. A painting has been stolen from the Penelope L. Brooks Museum and sixth-grader Rami Ahmed is worried he's the main suspect. His mother works at the museum as the lead custodian and Rami spends a lot of time hanging out at the museum while she works. On the day the painting went missing, the only people there were the security guard Ed, the cleaning crew, and Rami. Then, a mysterious girl appears in the museum. She floats around from room to room and only Rami can see her -- and she looks exactly like the girl from the missing painting. To prove his innocence and help figure out who the floating girl is, Rami partners up with an aspiring sleuth at school named Veda and the two dive into unexpected situations as they try to solve the mystery. This is a cozy mystery that is focused mostly on characters and ambiance and only a little on the mystery itself. Don't read this book if yo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Amazing Generation

By
The Amazing Generation: Your Guide to Fun and Freedom in a Screen-Filled World Written by Jonathan Haidt and Catherine Price  Illustrated by Cynthia Yuan Cheng New York: Rocky Pond Books, 2025. Informational. 226 pages.  In a kid-friendly adaptation of his best-selling book, The Anxious Generation , Jonathan Haidt teams up with Catherine Price, author of How to Break Up With Your Phone , to bring the power of good information directly to the hands of those that this issue affects most directly — kids on the cusp of getting their own smartphones. The book presents information about the drawbacks of having a smartphone and social media too soon in clear and easy-to-understand language, with eye-catching graphics and pop-outs. Throughout the book, quotes from real teens and young adults, called screen "rebels" by the authors, emphasize the points the authors are trying to make. Fictional characters are featured throughout in a graphic novel story, which further emphasizes the po...
Post a Comment
Read more