Campbell Editorial - Archived Reviews

And Now the Story Lives Inside You, by Elizabeth Reninger, Woven Word Press - 2005

When time permits, I invite you to spend an eternity walking among the finely polished syllables of the sixty-one poems in Elizabeth Reninger’s And Now The Story Lives Inside You.

“North Boulder Creek,” “Butterfly,” “Sand Castles,” “Winter Birch & Stars” and the other gems in this remarkable debut collection bring to the page a great economy of language, laser-crisp and metaphorical, reminiscent of traditional Chinese and Japanese poetry—yet with a clear, new voice.

Here we see the realism of the natural world combined with the deeper mysteries that unfold before the eyes of an observer with an eagle’s eyes. Reninger sees the wild things and wild places with great accuracy, reminiscent of the clarity Annie Dillard (Pilgrim at Tinker Creek) brings to her books—yet with a knowing that breaks down the boundaries between ourselves and the world around us.

Every careful brush stroke in the smooth-flowing calligraphy of Reninger’s lines calls forth old secrets, old mysteries, old wisdom—the energies behind the manifestations of rocks and birds and clouds—that transform in our reading of them into our own evolving stories.

You will, with certainty, mature with the “young grasses coming up like dreams from the Earth’s revolving sleep,” move ahead as your “body turns where your breath takes it,” and attune yourself to the secrets of meadow and forest as you learn “how to walk as though caressing the Earth.”

I invite you, when time permits, to set aside your map and compass, and follow your intuition down the pathways of Reninger’s words to catch the dancing light, to glimpse spirit’s “fiercely elegant dash from mystery into the manifest,” and to find your own reflection in nature’s all-seeing mirror.

Waterton and Glacier in a Snap!, by Ray Djuff and Chris Morrison, Rocky Mountain Books - 2005

In the years since 1910 when Glacier National Park was established, this mountain preserve known as the Crown of the Continent and the Backbone of the World, has attracted a wide variety of colorful characters, odd happenings, little-known snippets of history, and good old funny stuff.

When it comes to fun facts about the park, my favorite book is Waterton and Glacier in a Snap! - Fast Facts & Titillating Trivia by Ray Djuff and Chris Morrison.

If you have been to Glacier National Park (Montana) or Waterton Lakes Park (Alberta), you were probably inspired by the glacier-carved peaks and valleys, the 1000 miles of trails, the old red busses, the flora and fauna, the historic hotels built by the Great Northern Railway, and the strange changes in the weather.

Ray Djuff began discovering the excitement and beauty of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park when he worked as a seasonal employee at the Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton. Chris Morrison has been writing about the park for about 20 years.

The chapter headings tip you off (as they should) to the kinds of titillating trivia you'll discover in this book: Gertie and Other Animals; Park Lore; On the Trail; Movies, Stars and VIPs; What's In a Name; Connections; Oddities; What Were They Thinking; Creatively Speaking; By the Numbers.

Let's take a peek inside...

Gertie was a grizzly bear who pan-handled for food along the Going-to-the-Sun highway in the 1940s. As the book says, "She learned to sit on her haunches and beg, with her front paws outstretched, sometimes in the middle of the road as traffic passed on either side."

Hired in 1910, Joseph Cosley was one of the park's original rangers. Unfortunately, he chose to make extra money trapping animals inside park boundaries for his fur-trading business. He wasn't caught and tried until 1929.

Hoke Smith, a publicity agent for the Great Northern Railway (1910-1920) used to spin a yarn about a purported geyser of 4000-year-old ice-cold bourbon in a hidden away part of the park.

Many movies have used Waterton and Glacier parks as settings for the action, including "Hidalgo," "Forrest Gump," "Heaven's Gate," "The Shining," and "Cattle Queen of Montana."

While the Blackfeet Indians considered the mountains as part of their domain, they spent most of their time on the plains. Many of the Blackfeet names given to the park's mountains, lakes, and rivers were bestowed by park developers who thought such names would provide the mystery and intrigue needed to lure visitors.

While the image on the famous buffalo nickel doesn't really belong to the legendary Blackfeet Chief Two Guns White Calf, the Great Northern Railway circulated a story in 1938 that visitors to the park could meet the Native American who posed for the coin.

When Going-to-the-Sun Road was dedicated in 1933, 4,000 people gathered at Logan Pass for chili cooked up at a Civilian conservation Corps (CCC) kitchen. The recipe called for 500 pounds of beans.

This 240-page book includes an index, a bibliography and hundreds of facts. It's a good read, a fun read, and an informative part of the Waterton-Glacier experience.

Seeds of Time, by K. C. Dyer, Boardwalk Books - 2003

When Darrell Connor arrives at Eagle Glen School for the summer, she doesn't want to be there. She's still bitter and emotionally rung out over the motorcycle accident that killed her father and cost her a leg several years ago. Now, Darrell's mother has dumped her at this place while she jets off to Europe. Yet the unusual school, the passageway through time, and the newfound friends provide her with unexpected opportunities to discover herself as well as adventures she will never forget. This exciting, well-paced story with three-dimensional characters is excellent for any young adult whose imagination is open to life with a touch of mystery and fantasy within a realistic setting. One easily finds oneself asking, "What would I do if I were in Darrell's shoes?"

The Valley of the Light, by Terry Kay, Atria Books - 2004

In this compact, lyrical book set in 1948 along the Georgia/North Carolina border near Lake Chatuge, Noah Locke arrives at a small town intending to catch and sell a few fish, do a few odd jobs, and then move on.

Locke, who still dwells on the horrors of World War II, never stays long in one place. While Locke is a fisherman, the best there ever was--to borrow a line out of "The Natural"--Kay's primary focus here is about "the mysticism of being gifted." The residents of Bowerton quickly recognize Locke's gift, make him feel welcome and he finds himself tempted to stay.

Kay, who received the Townsend Prize for this novel (his tenth), knows the territory, the customs, and the speech patterns, and he communicates all of this with transcendent and poetic prose, perfectly rendered dialogue, three-dimensional characters, a fine sense of place, and a gentle touch.

I find that I must disagree with the Publishers Weekly reviewer who wrote that the book is marred by slow pacing and its lack of a compelling plot. The plot goes where it must and it takes the right amount of time getting there.

And when we're done reading "The Valley of Light" and see very clearly the meaning of the fishing metaphor and how all the characters ended up where they ended up, we feel as though we were immersed in another world for a time and then suddenly yanked out of that enchanted place like an eight-pound bass well played on the end of a line.

Hope's War, by Marsha Skrypuch, Boardwalk Books - 2001

Imagine this scenario if you dare: You are 15 and have transferred to a new high school. Before you can make your way through the maze of teachers, students, courses, and cliques, you learn that the police have charged your 78-year-old immigrant grandfather with war crimes. Before you can make your way through the resulting maze of new emotions, questions, public scrutiny, and hearings, you learn that the government will deport your grandfather if it makes its case. To make its case, the government need not present incontrovertible proof or even strong circumstantial evidence. Tenuous innuendo is sufficient, for all the government must do is establish a remote probability that your grandfather lied during the immigration process about his activities in his former homeland. This probability can never be verified one way or the other, for the government has destroyed all the records.

This is not another account of a Kafkaesque cold war regime or a cautionary tale about a twisted brave new world of the future. The powerful story that unfolds before teenager Kataryna (Kat) Baliuk’s eyes in Hope’s War is today’s threatening reality for naturalized Canadian citizens who emigrated from Ukraine after World War II. (Naturalized U.S. citizens who emigrated from Ukraine live under a similar cloud.)

A talented art student, Kat faces challenges of her own as she begins the 10th grade at the Cawthra School for the Arts after a stormy ninth-grade year at St. Paul’s Catholic School. Her new classmates, with their diverse loyalties and cliques, already know about the incident that forced her to leave St. Paul’s.

Her grandfather Danylo has recently moved in with the Baliuk family after the death of his wife Nadiya (Hope). When Kat arrives home from her second day at Cawthra, she finds two RCMP officers from the department of immigration’s war crimes unit interviewing Danylo about the forms he filled out 50 years ago.

Multiple story lines intertwine in Hope’s War: Kat must discover who her true friends are as she tries to fit in at school; Danylo must force himself to revisit the horrific days of the German occupation when 2.5 million Ukrainians---600,000 of whom were Ukrainian Jews—were liquidated by the Nazi regime; the Baliuk family must pull together in the face of glaring headlines, protesters, hate mail and the impending deportation hearings to support a Danylo they may not know.

Early on, Kat sneaks into her parents’ bedroom and finds the official notice from the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration: “Kat dropped the paper back on the bed as if it were dirty. What did this mean? That her beloved grandfather was a war criminal? The paper talked about atrocities committed and collaboration and thirty days to respond.”

Did Danylo collaborate with the Germans occupying his Ukrainian village in 1943 and 1944? And if not, why is the RCMP claiming that he did? Author Marsha Skrypuch is in no hurry to weave together such answers and other loose ends. Instead, she allows the story time to unfold naturally with grace, passion and building tension before Kat and the reader learn the truth and for whom it matters.

The Gift of Horse, by Pamela J. Dodd, Booklocker, 2004

Pamela J. Dodd tells the story of high school student Angela ("Angie") Donalson's abduction by millionaire Marc Avery with a detailed, straightforward approach. Angie's new life begins with her harsh imprisonment--capably managed by Ms. Billie Chapman, an ex-Marine who knows how to break people down and build them back up--and quickly moves into a mental territory more remote than Avery's vast estate. As Angie changes, she must decide whether it's for better or worse and whether she has any choice in the matter either way. "The Gift Horse" carries us through the resulting emotional landscape with relentless efficiency.

New from Pamela Dodd: Trinity of Tylos will be released by Whiskey Creek Press in February 2006.

Secret of Light, by K. C. Dyer, Boardwalk Books, 2003

Darrell Connor’s summer at Eagle Glen School in Seeds of Time (2002) included experiences outside the curriculum: time travel to medieval Scotland with her friends Kate and Brodie and her dog Delaney. In Secret of Light (2003), they’re all back at the mysterious school ready for another fast-paced adventure. Unfortunately, Darrell’s nemesis Conrad Kennedy—last seen heading off to reform school—has shown up again as well. This term, as the school’s course work focuses on an upcoming Renaissance fair, Darrell focuses on an abandoned lighthouse that will pull her back to dangerous and exciting times and places faraway. As in Seeds of Time, Secret of Light nudges the everyday world up against the realm of magic with characters we care about and lively writing that keeps us from putting the book down until we’ve reached the last line.

Readers have much to look forward to with the recent publication of Shades of Red, the final book in the Eagle Glen Trilogy.

The Alchemist's Daughter, by Eileen Kernaghan, Thistledown Press, 2004

Sidonie Quince, a bright, pragmatic, and humorously sharp-tongued girl in Elizabethan England, prefers the “reassuring certainties” of Euclid and mathematics to the misty world of alchemy and fortune telling.

Yet she has inherited the talent of scrying (crystal gazing) from her late mother. For good reason, Sidonie views the gift as a curse rather than a blessing even though her alchemist father Simon wants her to use her skills to earn money for the family and win favor at court.

Simon has spent a lifetime laboring in his laboratory in search of the philosopher’s stone and believes he is close to success in the Great Work. Rashly, he promises the Queen he will soon be able to turn lead into the gold the nation desperately requires to prepare for the looming threat of attack by the Spanish Armada.

Though Sidonie fears he will fail again, incurring the Queen’s displeasure, she sets off on a mission with her good friend Kit to locate a missing ingredient for the alchemical recipe. In the process, she finds herself in a whirlwind of danger in which her life and the fate of the nation hinge on her ability to see the future.

In this richly detailed novel, we’re handed a mysterious elixir created with a brightly written mix of Renaissance events, historic personages (including Queen Elizabeth, Lord Burleigh, Sir Philip Sidney, Francis Walsingham, William Shakespeare) and real and fictional intrigues well seasoned with magic.

Eileen Kernaghan, who received the Aurora Prize for The Snow Queen, once again works her own brand of alchemy to transform vowels and consonants into a reading experience of pure gold.

my name is mitch, by Shelagh Lynne Supeene, Orca Book Publishers, 2003

Sixth grader Mitch MacLeod is picked on at school for being small and for having trouble with reading. Even though Philip and Siobhan challenge him about something every day, Mitch maintains his sense of humor in this delightful story. However, more challenging problems loom on the horizon. His divorced mother calls Mitch's estranged father "The Creep," which makes him an abstract, unknown shadow in the scheme of things until he suddenly appears on the scene. This realistic account of a kid coming to terms with school bullies and absent fathers will resonate well with middle school students and those of us who remember what it was like not to be part of the "in" crowd.

Mitch does a lot of growing up in this 171-page book and, while doing so, serves as a catalyst for all the kids and adults around him who also have some growing up to do. His wry sense of humor and practical common sense pull the reader along on an entertaining and meaningful journey.

Second Watch, by Karen Autio, Sono Nis Press, 2005

As you begin reading, you quickly discover that 11-year-old Saara's dream is a trip to Finland to meet her grandparents. But the book's title and cover art have already given you information Saara does not have: she has a date with destiny on the ill-fated last voyage of the luxurious RMS Empress of Ireland.

En route to that May 29, 1914 date, you will find a young girl confronting the joys and tensions of family life, sibling rivalry, a father's job loss, the changing loyalties of friends, the challenges of school, and the ever-present need to scrimp and save and spend both sides of every penny.

Karen Autio immerses you in the rich world of Canada's Finnish immigrant culture, giving you enough time to get to know everybody on a first name basis, before she plunges you into the cold waters near Point-au-Pere in the St. Lawrence River where 1,012 lives are lost.

A Distant Flame, by Philip Lee Williams, St. Martin's Press, 2004

While young Charlie Merrill can hit a target 2,000 yards away with a Whitlock rifle, he is an unlikely soldier. We see him before the war as a frail, sickly teenager who is well-schooled in poetry and classical literature, living in one of the many North Georgia towns that is not altogether convinced of the wisdom of secession, much less war. We see Charlie Merrill in 1914 as his home town prepares to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the battle of Atlanta, thinking back on the loss and the sacrifice and the love that tied them together. And those of us who have walked the old works of Kennesaw Mountain where hikers now commune with a quiet wood and families spread out blankets and picnics on the warm grass of summer afternoons, see Charlie Merrill in in the contrasting bloody hell of 1864 rendered here in graphic detail. This novel received the Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction in 2004. It is a well-deserved honor, for A Distant Flame stands very near the top of the 80,000 books published about the civil war..

Song of an Untamed Land, by Seth Mullins, Infinity, 2004

When orphan Eden Bander is ripped from the violence of his recent past and flung into a wilderness of magic, political intrigue and the threat of a powerful invading army, he is simply a young man trying to survive.

Like Thomas Covenant in Stephen Donaldson's epic series, Eden has no reason to believe in magic or destiny in spite of the power of Enofor, the wise family patriarch, and his wife Brieran who befriend him from the beginning.

Like Frodo in the "Lord of the Rings," Eden is an everyday guy swept up into a try mythic quest where the stakes are high. Unlike Frodo, Eden begins his quest without knowing he is on a quest or that it may fall to him to save the land and the people he slowly comes to love.

The depth of the story comes in part from Mullins' realistic and inspiring descriptions of the land and from a supporting cast of very three-dimensional characters with complicated loyalties and backgrounds. Flowing throughout the book from beginning to end is the beauty and power of song in land where the outlawing of song has made the inhabitants thirsty for music.

Ultimately, Eden must discover himself and his own very special talents before he can fight larger battles. This magical, action packed hero's quest is a real pleasure for the reader who likes characters who are living dangerously in the service of others.