Mr. Thatcher wants to build a house, and it must be absolutely, positively perfect. But he's about to learn a lesson about what really makes a house a home in Mr. Thatcher's House.
Mr. Thatcher, a long-eared rabbit, has big plans to build the perfect house. He works hard - measuring and sanding, nailing and gluing - and his house slowly comes together. "But no matter how smoothly he sanded his stair treads, or how precisely he planed his porch planks, it never felt perfect. Something was missing. So he kept building..."
Mr. Thatcher's house grew, and grew, and grew...and still it wasn't perfect. Would he ever complete his home? And then...one morning, he heard a knock at the door. Who could that be? Surely no one would visit his yet-to-be-completed home. Mr. Thatcher opened the door and was surprised to see the witch. Apparently, some children were eating her gingerbread house and she needed a place to stay. "You wouldn't want to stay in this house," Mr. Thatcher protested. "It's far from perfect." But the witch didn't care. She needed a place to stay and once Mr. Thatcher smelled her cooking and his stomach grumbled, he decided one guest was okay in his unfinished house. But no sooner had the witch moved in when there was another knock at the door. It was the three little pigs! And then some bears came knocking, and then more guests... Would Mr. Thatcher ever finish building his house?
Mr. Thatcher's House is a fun, creative tale that takes a fresh look at what really makes a house a home. The author, who also illustrated the book, used many well-known storybook animals as visitors to Mr. Thatcher's house which will no doubt delight young readers who will instantly recognize these characters. There are a few carpentry terms that some readers might struggle with, such as "planed," "chiseled," and "structurally sound," but overall, this is a delightful and creative book that young readers will love.
Quill says: A lighthearted, fun book about what really makes a house a home.
Today, Feathered Quill reviewer Kathy Stickles is talking with Bruce Smith, author of Legend Keepers: The Partnership.
FQ: I really love the concept of Legend Keepers and having the animal characters be such a huge part of the story. Where did the character of Buddy come from? Why a mountain goat and not some other animal?
SMITH: Why not reveal climate change through the eyes and lives of animals who live its consequences every day? Animals serve kids as trusted teachers and the mountain goat is a perfect gateway species to the climate crisis. It lives at higher altitudes than any other large animal in North America. And it’s at those highest altitudes—and the highest latitudes—that the planet is warming fastest. Species living up there must adapt fast, if they can.
Buddy, the heroine kid mountain goat, leapt from the pages of my nonfiction book, Life on the Rocks: A Portrait of the American Mountain Goat. Adapting the book’s chapter that explains how global warming is affecting alpine creatures into a story for young readers—and creating Buddy, this charismatic central character—was an easy choice.
I also chose Buddy as the protagonist because of my fondness for mountain goats. That dates back to the 1970s when I spent 2 years living among and studying them deep in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area of western Montana.
FQ: What made you decide to include a human character in the second book as such a major part of the story?
Author Bruce Smith
SMITH: Although Buddy knows that things are changing on her mountain, she doesn’t know why. To explore the climate crisis more deeply, human characters needed to join the story in the series’ second book, The Partnership. They bring more depth and layers to the story.
For Garson’s sixth-grade science project, he climbs to the Shining Mountain Glacier in the wilderness that’s near his home. There, he encounters Buddy and that changes everything as these two kids’ lives become entwined. Their shared alarm over the Great Warming’s threat to the glacier, and to Buddy’s mountaintop home, transforms Garson from an introverted boy into an environmental advocate. Sometimes it takes a partnership to bring out the best in us.
FQ: I love that Garson is such a normal kid and that a part of your storyline was not only his desire to help Buddy and the others, but you also show us how hard his personal life is at times. Was it hard to go off-topic, so to speak, and give the reader the personal as well as the science?
SMITH: I think the most endearing and relatable characters are those who are flawed and face personal challenges. It gives them room to grow. That was common to the lives of both protagonists. Garson just didn’t fit in and was bullied because he was different, not unlike many kids. During the course of the Legend Keepers story, he grows more self-confident. His growth is a product of discovering and acting on what is important to him—his purpose—as is the case for his costar, Buddy. In a sense they live parallel lives. This provides readers both a boy and an animal to root for. Both are great role models. These protagonists also provide readers an opportunity to experience the climate crisis through the eyes and lives of both animals and kids.
FQ: Was there a lot of research involved in this story regarding the science (glaciers, global warming, etc.) and how hard was it to translate all of that information into something that kids could easily understand?
SMITH: Writing about topics an author is familiar with, and in my case subjects I’ve studied and written nonfiction about, does simplify the background research. Yet, it’s important to be current on the subject matter. So I did plenty of reading. I also conducted personal interviews of forest ecologists, glaciologists, and Marine Corps recruiters to ensure the underpinnings of the story were factually accurate. But that alone doesn’t make a good story. I read loads of current middle-grade fiction and studied the craft of writing for this age group. It also helps to live inside the characters while writing.
FQ: I know that I do, but do you have a personal favorite out of the characters you have created?
SMITH: The most fun about creating Legend Keepers was bringing to life this cast of characters. Certainly so for the animal characters. As Buddy interacted with Roark the wizardly raven, Maurice the vociferous, daffy marmot, Whodare the cool, courageous pygmy owl, and the other mountain goats of her band, the characters became believable—at least to me. Perhaps without young readers aware of it, animal characters serve as stand-ins for humans. We can find something relatable in each as they struggle to overcome obstacles and discover the importance of friends and family.
Which one is my favorite? Well, that’s like asking parents which child they like best.
FQ: What made you decide to write the series for kids rather than adults? Do you feel that the books are helping kids to understand the issues that our planet faces?
SMITH: Young people are feeling stressed about the climate crisis. They’re smart. They see, hear, and read what’s happening. And with their whole lives in front of them, they know that the changing climate’s consequences are sure to grow worse for them. Many kids are experiencing what psychologists now call eco-anxiety or climate grief. The good news is that young people are taking action. They’re leading the way because they feel that we adults are failing them. To nourish kids’ aspirations and activism through hopeful stories is why I wrote Legend Keepers for them.
The Legend Keepers books blend fact with fiction to entertain, educate, and empower readers. “The Science Behind Legend Keepers” offers several pages of information at the back of each book about geology, glaciers, climate change, and the animals in the story plus suggested further reading. These are perfect classroom books for STEM learning, and for family discussions. I would like to see Legend Keepers, and books with similar messages, in every school library and part of classroom curricula.
FQ: I must say that I adore the drawing on the cover of the book. Did you design it yourself or did someone else handle the art? If so, did you tell them what you wanted it to look like?
SMITH: I feel the same way about the cover artwork! Of course, I’m biased. My wife Diana created the watercolor art. The general designs for the covers were my idea. She took my simple sketches and created on paper what I could only imagine. Nice that her office is just down the hall from mine so that I could watch the interior illustrations and book covers come to life.
FQ: I know from your biography that you have written non-fiction books as well. Which is easier for you to write? What made you choose to create a fiction series on this topic instead?
SMITH: A big question. I hadn’t planned to switch from writing adult nonfiction books to writing fiction for kids. I had no prior experience doing it. But when I was on a book tour for Life on the Rocks: A Portrait of the American Mountain Goat, I was disappointed that few children came to my events. Their parents and grandparents didn’t bring them, even though event publicity made clear “This is a talk for the whole family, with lots of slides of animals.” It just hit me that I needed to write a story for kids. I’d talk directly to them, or rather the characters in my novel would.
So that the book wouldn’t sound preachy, I chose fiction and wrapped the climate theme in a grand adventure at the roof of the world. Because it was new to me, I can’t say writing fiction was easier than my nonfiction projects, just more fun and creative. I discovered that the interplay of the characters I fashioned, and came to love, had as much to do with the story’s arc as did any preconceived plot. Holding a loose rein on what I thought “would be” was essential to the creative process. Writing nonfiction, even narrative nonfiction, is nothing like that!
FQ: Can you tell us what comes next for Buddy, Garson, and the rest of our new friends?
SMITH: To tie up all the loose ends left dangling in the second book is the challenge for me in the next book. I’m curious just how the characters will do that. Perhaps it’s best for me to answer your question with no more than the teaser at the end of The Partnership: Garson is determined to keep his promise to Buddy, even as Roark chides her, “Maybe there’s nothing goats and ravens can do to change the future. And whatever makes you think that boy can?” But never underestimate a twelve-year-old with a plan. There’s nothing Garson wants more than to protect Shining Mountain. Nothing except to see his dad again, and perhaps Buddy.
In his new book, Legend Keepers: The Partnership, Bruce Smith gives his readers a captivating continuation to the story he started in Legend Keepers: The Chosen One. In this story we find out that sometimes you are just not able to fix a problem on your own...you must have a partner.
In Legend Keepers: The Partnership, the author resumes his tale of Buddy, the young mountain goat introduced in the first book, who is fixed on finding a safe place for her herd to survive what she refers to as “The Great Warming.” This quest of Buddy’s brings her in contact with a new character to the series, Garson Strangewalker. This young boy is a 12-year-old school kid dealing with many problems: He is in a new place, he does not seem to fit in well at school and has not made any friends, he has a very overprotective mom, and his father has disappeared and no one is sure if he is still alive.
While attending a school science fair, Garson asks what seems to be a simple question and it changes his entire life. With the help of his mom and his science teacher Mr. Rock, Garson embarks on his own science project regarding glaciers and what is happening to the environment due to their melting. He sets out to climb to the top of the Shining Mountain Glacier, near his own home, and when he gets to the top he meets Buddy and, after getting over the surprise that this young mountain goat can actually speak to him, he becomes involved in her quest to find a safe place for Buddy and her friends on their mountaintop. This chance meeting sets off a number of events that quickly transform this scared and confused young boy into a very determined young man who wants to do his part to educate others and save the environment.
The characters in this book, both animal and human, are wonderfully written and so engaging. As readers we can easily feel the fear and determination in Buddy to find a safe place on the mountain; we can understand the lack of trust that comes through in Roark as he tries to decide whether or not Garson can really help them; and the happiness and depression that both come through in Mr. Rock as he wants Garson to succeed in continuing the work he started so long ago at the top of the glacier but he also wishes he were still young enough and able to go up there and solve the problems himself.
Bruce Smith, a wildlife biologist himself, is a wonderful writer and this story certainly shows his skill with the pen. His background and knowledge of the environment make for a story that is so very educational to all in terms of environmental issues. In addition to that, he writes such well-rounded and interesting characters (again both human and animal) and the reader can easily care about each and every one and wish for their success. The characters show so many emotions; distress at the situation, enjoyment and lots of humor and fun in their interactions together, as well as fear and confusion. Everything is wrapped together in a perfectly written package that leaves the reader, as with the first book, longing for the next installment in the series to see what the next steps in their searches for the perfect and safe life will be. This is a story that you will not put down until the very end and then, as a reader, wait eagerly for the next one.
Quill says: For those out there who see the cover and think “this book isn’t for adults,” I believe you are wrong. This is a book for children, the adults in their lives, and anyone who has an interest in science, the environment, and climate change. In other words...this is a wonderful book that should be read by all!
Meet Author Melissa Ahonen and learn about her award-winning book, Aspen's Magical Mermaid Necklace in her new author biography page at Feathered Quill Book Reviews:
Today, Feathered Quill reviewer Diane Lunsford is talking with Betsy L. Ross, author of The Bones of the World.
FQ: Thank you for your time today. I’m looking forward to discussing The Bones of the World with you. Before jumping into the storyline, I would be remiss if I didn’t address your impressive biography. I’m particularly interested in your ‘happily retired attorney’ status. What type of law did you practice and what is your takeaway from being an attorney?
ROSS: I’ve had a varied career as an attorney, but most of my time was spent as an attorney for the State of Utah, the most challenging/rewarding position as lead judge for the State Records Committee, a quasi-judicial entity that resolved disputes over access to government records. Sounds arcane, but there were often sensitive records at issue and the decision to retain or release had conflicting consequences. It taught me how to listen well, how to take into account differing perspectives, and how to live with often imperfect outcomes.
FQ: Moving into The Bones of the World...I enjoyed the mechanics of how you laid out the story in that you continue to anchor the accounts of many of the adult characters through the eyes of the children’s stories. Without too much of a spoiler, what was your motivation in structuring the novel this way?
ROSS: Ultimately, the children’s stories are the core of the novel. All of the action occurs in preparation for those stories to be told. That structure highlights the (damnable) cyclical nature of the events, but also allows the spotlight to be shared with the idea of stories and their purpose.
FQ: I enjoyed the development of the relationships among Inés, Eloise, and Rachel and their connection with the afterlife. I’m a strong believer we humans have the ability to converse with the spirit world. Have you ever encountered an experience when you have done this? If so, can you elaborate?
Author Betsy Ross
ROSS: I am a believer, foremost, in possibilities, aware as I am of my limited perspective on life. In fact, literature is my way of attempting to broaden my perspective, and my own writing is the way I can play with realities I may not live. But it sounds like you may have a much more interesting answer to that excellent question than I gave!
FQ: In line with my previous question, do you believe the stronger one’s faith is anchored, the greater their ability to see and communicate with things/situations others less connected with their faith are not able to do? If so, what’s your theory?
ROSS: You could probably tell from my answer above that anchors frighten me. Rigidity frightens me. Certainty frightens me. But I allow that, as I suggested above, that is just me. I don’t know the answer to your question. In fact, I know the answers to few questions, but revel in questions and in the consideration of answers.
FQ: With all due respect, I’ve not watched your documentary Looking for David yet. However, I would like to understand how incredibly difficult this must have been to produce this tragic story. What was your defining moment to go forward?
ROSS: I hope you’ll watch it, and that many others will continue to watch it as well, as I made it to educate those who believe that addiction strikes only the weak. I made it as a love story to my son, talented, kind, remarkable young man that he was. And I made it, ultimately, because when I found David dead, I had no idea he suffered an addiction to opioids. For me the defining moment was the morning I walked down the stairs at 7 am, looked into the darkened family room, saw him slumped over the coffee table, told him to go to bed and he didn’t answer.
FQ: My personal commitment as a writer consistently relies upon who I am writing the story for before I sit down to actually engage in telling the story. In my opinion, some of the greatest writers who have ever lived (and live) focus on this guiding principle; hence delivering an epic read. What is your view toward this sentiment and if you had to impart one of your guiding principles in writing, what would that be and why?
ROSS: I write to understand, to explore things that currently play an important part in my life. So The Bones of the Worldbegan with my attempt to understand “suffering.” The novel I am currently working on is an attempt to understand “generosity.” I actually don’t think of an audience, but I’m interested in how that works for you.
FQ: In line with my previous question, do you believe in order to be an accomplished writer, one must also be a voracious reader? Please elaborate.
ROSS: Wow, you have wonderful questions. I would have to say that it likely helps to be a voracious reader but is not necessary. I am thinking of oral traditions, the Bible, Homeric poems, the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, Native American stories, etc. when I suggest it is not necessary. However, I know The Bones of the World is built on the backs of so much great literature, without which it would not be the same.
FQ: Thank you again for the opportunity to sit and chat with you today. I cannot imagine you aren’t already working on your next novel. If so, are you able to share? If not, what’s next?
ROSS: I am working on three different concepts right now, waiting for one to carry me off by storm and demand that I finish it.
By: Betsy L. Ross Publisher: Atmosphere Press Publication Date: February 21, 2023 ISBN: 978-1-639886-94-4 Reviewed by Diane Lunsford Review Date: December 30, 2022
Filmmaker, poet, book reviewer, and retired attorney Betsy L. Ross adds to her cache of talent with the delivery of her novel, The Bones of the World. She takes her audience on a spiritual journey as told through the voices and souls of her memorable characters.
The story begins with Rachel. She is hiding from the Righteous, a group of militants determined to wipe out the existence of the Jewish population. Her husband Henry has taken her to a safe place; a mansion located next to an enchanted cemetery. This is where Rachel will begin her journey down her spiritual path of uncovering a familial history of pain and suffering and most importantly, the truth. The mansion is owned by sisters Eloise and Inés who have the powers to speak with the dead. Inés has experienced the voices and interacted with the Jewish children murdered long ago by the Righteous. The children wait patiently in the cemetery for their turn to tell Inés their painful tales. It is time for Rachel to hear these horrific accounts as a means to awaken her to her own Jewish heritage.
During the many situations Rachel encounters in her dreams, Rachel meets Sariah. She is a young woman who had two strikes against her. The Inquisition had labeled her not only as a Jew, but a lesbian. In tandem with meeting Sariah, Rachel is introduced to Jakob, a young boy who throughout the Holocaust, spent his youth hidden in a farmhouse where his thoughts were consumed by hours and days of plotting his revenge. Rachel navigates between consciousness and dreams as she mentally tries to sort out what is real and what is a dream. She is terrified for her son David and while she refuses to acknowledge it, the fact is, he is dead. David’s demise happened at a time known as the ‘Night of the Ascent.’ How does her husband Henry fit into this confusing puzzle and why is her mother’s friend Maura a vital key to answering this particular question for Rachel?
I applaud Betsy L. Ross for embarking on her journey of writing a faceted novel that addresses the history of the Holocaust. She sets the tone on the first page with the introduction of character Rachel and how she may appear as a woman and wife of privilege, yet her deeper sense of being is she is a Jewish woman. Ross’ adept driving of her pen makes it clear she has deeper plans in store for her character. Ross layers her tale with precise scenery that lends way to credible dialogue: "...She can’t remember exactly when the room had begun speaking to her. Not in words exactly, but in patterns she found in niches and corners. Three cracks in the plaster of the ceiling above her bed. Some nights, as she lay observing them, they were the branches of a tree; one night, a laurel, and she imagined herself Daphne, metamorphosing just in time to elude Apollo’s lustful advances..." Ross is cautious with her word use in that she doesn’t pen a prolific rant of loathing in listing all that was clearly catastrophic and devastating when one selects the Holocaust as his/her backdrop to the novel. Rather, she is kind and gentle and open-minded, but forceful just the same in anchoring the point that this is a time in history that should have never occurred. Ross adopts a back-and-forth style from chapter to chapter among her characters and plants enough of a seed at the end of each to tie the sum of all together as she approaches the end of her tale. Bravo Ms. Ross. I am a fan and look forward to reading your next body of work.
Quill says: The Bones of the World is a prolific account of why we must ‘never forget’ what history encourages us to learn.
For more information on The Bones of the World, please visit the author's website at: www.betsylross.com/
The Frankfurt Kitchen: Forty-One Stories of Growing Up in Post-World War II West Germany
By: Heidi Laird
Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
Publication Date: November 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64952-974-9
Reviewed by Diane Lunsford
Review Date: February 20, 2023
The Frankfurt Kitchen is a bittersweet collection of Heidi Laird’s childhood memories in a book of forty-one stories that recount her experiences of growing up in post-World War II West Germany.
Before comprehending the beautiful memories across the pages, it’s important to note the sentiment of writing this book Ms. Laird shares in the Acknowledgements: "...It took much longer than I ever thought it would, it left me alternately exhilarated and exhausted, and it showed me, as if I didn’t already know, how sharply childhood experiences sculpt our character, and how deeply they carve themselves into our souls..." In the very first chapter, Ms. Laird shares her recollection at the tender age of eight of standing in the pouring rain with her mother. They were standing alongside the on-ramp of the Autobahn between Heidelberg and Frankfurt and they were hitchhiking. The year was 1949 and Heidi and her mother, Vera Shaefer, were on one of their trips to visit Heidi’s father, Harry Saarbach. Vera strategically chose this miserable and quite rainy day in April to make the visit because (without a vehicle of their own), the competition among fellow hitchhikers would be minimal due to the lack of sunshine. As the U.S. Army Jeep pulls along the side of the road to pick them up. Heidi studies the driver and recalls, "...I sensed that the soldier had spontaneously acted in good faith on his impulse to get a woman and her child out of a punishing rainstorm, disregarding the fact that, as a member of the military force occupying the country of a former enemy, he had broken the unwritten but well-understood rule that transporting unauthorized German civilians in U.S. military vehicles was prohibited."
As Ms. Laird commits her recollections to paper, she supplements her work with a wealth of historical information. In the first chapter, she maps out the plan to rehabilitate and rejuvenate Germany post-war and what the U.S. involvement would entail. She provides a brief education on the Marshall Plan "...first rejected by U.S. Congress who wanted to see Germany plowed under and turned into an agrarian society, which would never again start a war. This was the vision of the secretary of the treasury, Henry Morgenthau. Advocates of the Marshall Plan countered that rebuilding the German industry and helping the Germans create a new version of their first, unsuccessful attempt at democracy would enable them to build a strong economy and produce a rich return on the U.S. investment. The goal of this gigantic project was to make the war zones livable again by removing the mountains of rubble and debris in the cities, finding and defusing the thousands of undetonated bombs and live ammunition that lay beneath the ruins and putting people to work under the direction of the U.S. Military government..."
In a see-saw fashion, Ms. Laird reflects on wartime memories as much as she addresses her life after war. There are many occasions that emote outright frustration on one hand as much as there is heartache for anyone (let alone a young child) to have to witness and endure such evil. It’s difficult to site one particular passage among the many poignant, but one that truly resonates with me is: "...As I write this seventy years later, in the year 2019, I recognize how distant this idealized vision of America has become, and I wonder if it will be possible to say seventy years from now that the principles and values of America’s founders have survived..."
Ms. Laird has done what a talented writer knows and is capable of doing. She set out on a journey to tell a story and make sure while telling the story, she kept her audience at the forefront with every passage she committed to paper by maintaining an engagement with them from the onset. As inconceivable as it is to truly understand the emotional scars and unseen wounds that may never heal completely, Ms. Laird commits her memories to words with a soft tone and without cynicism. Rather, there is a strong sentiment of sadness and melancholic idealism that we as humans carry inside of each of us. We lament on how things are and what they could be, but in the proverbial ‘end’ what changed? I applaud Ms. Laird for raising not only awareness for her personal experiences through and post war, but doing it in such a way that she tempers her pen throughout with a sublime tone of: ‘pay attention’ this affected me. I am grateful and honored to have read this book. It is one that sheds insurmountable enlightenment and at the same time, frightening familiarity toward today’s world climate.
Quill says: The Frankfurt Kitchen provides a fair amount of credibility to the nuance of history and its propensity to repeat itself.
