When thirteen-year-old Aaron, his father, and two of his father’s friends and their teen-age kids set out on a sea-kayaking adventure off the central coast of British Columbia, they fully expect to come across the bald eagles, wolves, bears, and even killer whales that they encounter. But what they aren’t prepared for is a more sinister type of danger: human brutality in the person of a ruthless sea captain who is determined to become rich off smuggling illegal immigrants into Canada.
The characters who embark on this trek are those first met in the author’s Breakfast Serial story Desolation Canyon: Roger the Rogue, who knows the wilderness and meets it with strength; his daughter, Lisa, who has just the right doses of spunkiness and charm to tug at Aaron’s heart; Willie, a toughened veteran of the Vietnam war; Willie’s son, Cassidy, sharp and rough—and just this side of wild; and Aaron’s dad, who possesses not only an eye for nature’s beauty, but the gift of the words to express it.
Jonathan London’s keen, knowledgeable, and poetic prose captures the extraordinary beauty—and potential danger—of the natural world and masterfully contrasts it with the infinitely more complex world of human behavior.
An adventure story full of excitement, intense beauty, suspense and rich characterization, Bella Bella transports the reader, evokes teenage energy and emotion, and raises important moral questions.
The illustrations by Jon Van Zyle are brilliant evocations of this world. The artist’s lifelong knowledge of the area adds a rich dimension, capturing both the beauty and excitement of this remarkable coastal environment.
The story of the boyhood astronomer Edwin Hubble. A country boy who was introduced to the moon and stars by his grandfather, Hubble became an astronomer because he followed his heart. One of the most important astronomers in history, he “discovered” the Big Bang theory of creation. The Hubbl…
Living on her family’s farm in 1814 Vermont, the war seems far away to young Violet Howard. As the war draws nearer so does a song that would later be of great importance, penned first as a poem during a nearby naval battle in Baltimore, Maryland. As Violet learns the words of this patriotic…
The Liberty Pole is based on a true event that took place in Holmes Hole (present day Tisbury) on Martha’s Vineyard sometime between 1775 and 1778. As the story indicates, Tisbury was sympathetic to the patriot cause, but had no choice but to remain neutral in the early years of the war.
Every kid is expected to play one sport a year at South Orange River Middle School. That’s why the school creates a soccer team for a bunch of boys who would rather work on computers, history and English.
