Two Halves Beating As One

When book nerds take a break it's a safe assumption reading will be involved.  Sometimes a couple of chapters stretch into an hour.  The task at hand is resumed but completed as quickly as possible so the reluctantly-paused reading can begin again.  An evening vanishes as well as most of the following morning until the final word is read.  In less than twenty-four hours a two hundred thirty-four page book is consumed.

This kind of book makes everything else disappear as you drop into the story.  This kind of book is worth SHOUTING about long and loud.  Some Kind Of Courage (Scholastic Press, January 26, 2016) written by Dan Gemeinhart, author of the highly successful The Honest Truth (Scholastic Press, January 25, 2015), is one of those books.

CHAPTER 1
OCTOBER, 1890
OLD MISSION, WASHINGTON

I reckoned it was the coldest, darkest hour of the night.  That still hour just before dawn.  Mama always called it the "angels and devils hour," on account of how only angels or demons would have any work worth doing at a time like that.

Twelve, nearly thirteen, Joseph Johnson is about to embark on a perilous journey but first he needs to escape the horrible clutches of his ne'er-do-well guardian, an avid fan of alcohol and plain questionable living.  Joseph aims to take the money and a gun.  Before you jump to any conclusions, the money was attained when Mr. Grissom sold Sarah, Joseph's horse, without his knowledge and the gun belonged to Joseph's deceased papa.  It's more than a little tense when Grissom wakes from a drunken stupor but the young man prevails determined with every fiber of his being to get his beloved pony back. Now he just has to track down the devilish scoundrel, Ezra Bishop, more thief than honest horseman who has Sarah.

Several early morning encounters bring him sadness and thankfulness in equal measure as he heads toward the nearest town, Wenatchee.  There, at the trading post, he befriends a Chinese youth about his age, "Ah-Kee", lost and alone.  Through Joseph's acts of kindness, the two head south out of town following the Columbia River in pursuit of what they love the most, neither understanding a word the other says but instinctively knowing they are better together.

Each day brings them sometimes closer, other times farther away from their individual goals.  A wake-up bathroom break is prelude to a too-close for comfort meeting with an angry grizzly.  They've hardly had time to recover from this when the next morning hearing calls of distress they offer assistance to a Native American youth, older and larger than either Joseph or "Ah-Kee" and his younger sister.  A race does result in them no longer having to travel on foot.  Their arrival in Ellensburg brings them heart-stopping near to death for the second time completely altering their plans.

Mother Nature levels huge distractions on the boys not once but twice where death and life hang in balance for them and others they meet in their further travels toward the town of Yakima. (By now I've had a map out following along with the duo.)  A parting of ways, a terrifying ride, and the ringing of gun shots will literally cause your heart to pause.  So will the conclusion.


As soon as I read the date and location on the first chapter page, I knew I was in for a wild ride back into the West. Within two paragraphs readers are transfixed by Joseph's situation.  This is the second paragraph.

I'd been lying too many sleepless hours in my sorry straw-stuffed bed, waiting for the old man to finally fall asleep.  My plan had been burning all night in my mind like the last glowing embers in the fireplace, keeping my heart awake.  Truth be told, my hands were a bit shaky as I finally crept, as quiet as could be, across the cabin's dirt floor toward where he lay snoring.  And it weren't just the cold making 'em shake, neither.  But my heart was as steady as a true horse, heading toward home.

This writing style supplied by Dan Gemeinhart gives us two things:  valuable insights into the character of Joseph and his dilemma and a vivid picture of his surroundings.  We are unquestionably captivated and compelled to keep reading.  He has a knack for ending and beginning chapters with white-knuckle sentences.

Throughout the story dialogue and first-person musings attach us to Joseph.  We cheer for those in his favor and condemn those who wish him harm.  As Joseph meets people, characters either kind and caring, too gruff for goodness, nasty to the core or one in particular whose goodness pierces his evil demeanor in slivers, he is in frequent conversations with his conscience relying on the voices of his parent's teachings to help him make decisions.  These perceptions engage readers, encouraging them to speculate how they might react in similar positions.

Gemeinhart allows us to see how Joseph's trek is not only measured in miles but in the growth of his personality.  We, like Joseph, are not only shaped but the physical places in which we reside and visit but in the people who cross those paths.  Another technique employed by Gemeinhart is to reveal Joseph's past as he converses with "Ah-Kee".  The Chinese youth can't understand Joseph but his facial features and body posture imply compassion, putting Joseph at ease.  Here are three additional passages from the book.

"Angel feathers," I said quietly, watching it fall.  Ah-Kee looked at me.  "That's what my sister called it. Katie."  Saying her name out loud like that, after so long, made me want to smile and cry at the same time.  It made me feel a whole different kind of alone.  "When there was snow like this in the morning, I used to say it looked like sugar, like the whole world had gotten candied overnight.  But she insisted it was feathers from the wings of angels, flying around at night watching over people."  Ah-Kee sat there and listened with his solemn eyes.  I blew my breath out in a foggy cloud.  "Let's stoke the fire and eat some grub and hit the road."

The air was a deep kind of cold, the sort of cold that tells your bones that fall is ending and winter is coming right up behind it.  A mostly full moon threw its silver light on the snow-topped hills, the pines, the grass around the cabin.  Off in the distance I could hear the river, tumbling its way through the night toward Yakima.
I stood alone in the darkness. Well, with the moon it weren't all-the-way darkness.  But I felt sure enough all-the-way alone.
I wanted my horse back right then more than ever.

The ax head shined bright as a bullet in the morning light.  It glinted as it rose up, swift and deadly, then flashed as it came slicing down.  I grunted and gasped. 


There is something for everyone in Some Kind Of Courage written by Dan Gemeinhart.  It's abundant adventure, total love of a horse for his boy and a boy for his horse, prevalent doses of how to decide right from wrong, inclusion of the discrimination against the Chinese and its introduction of persons residing in these particular Western settings, Native Americans, homesteaders, horse traders, agents, merchants and townsfolk, and outlaws, contribute to the excellence found within this historical fiction.  It's downright suspenseful and flawlessly heartwarming.

To learn more about Dan Gemeinhart please follow the link attached to his name to access his website.

UPDATE:  Dan Gemeinhart is interviewed at Book Q & A With Deborah Kalb.  

Running Toward Life

If you've been fighting the good fight for years, but receive the worst news you can receive, you have a choice.  If you are sick of being sick, you have a choice.  If at the end of the day your best friend is your dog, you have a choice.  You plan.  You run. You do it together.


It's a decision made from heartache; a chance to control your destiny.  It's trying to be strong in the face of fear.  The Honest Truth (Scholastic Press, January 27, 2015) debut novel of teacher, librarian and father of three, Dan Gemeinhart introduces us to twelve-year-old Mark who chooses to reach for the top as long as he is able.

The mountain was calling me.  I had to run away.  I had to. 

The mountain calling to him is Mount Rainier in the state of Washington.  In alternating chapters we travel with him and his dog, Beau and listen to his best friend of years at home, Jessie, describe the reactions of his parents and the secret she carries.  Over the course of several days and nights and hundreds of miles we hang on tight following the emotional and real life roller coaster ride right along with these two people.

Mark has a backpack with his notebook, food, gear and saved money along with his camera, the kind using film.  He's carrying a duffel bag for Beau to climb into when he needs to stay hidden.  He believes he is as prepared as he can be for this kind of trip, a trip steeped in a pledge.  What he does not take into consideration are the people he meets and the impending winter storm.

Jessie's concern for Mark grows as the police continue to come up empty-handed in their search for him.  Their shared experiences bind her as close to him as two people can be without being in the same skin.  Their past promises keep her silent.

We know the comfort of the glowing windows in a diner on deserted streets.  We know the pain felt when dangers lurking in the shadows inflict harm.  We know the relief of singing women in a kitchen.  We know the panic when a path taken threatens to steal away life.  We feel tired; straight to the core, I-can't-go-any-more tired.  Most of all we know truth, the honest truths discovered, or already known, by the characters.


Before we have even read a single line of the narrative the chapter heading page in a black background with a white crevasse, black text reading CHAPTER 1 and white text reading MILES TO GO:  263 establishes a journey to be taken; as a reader a type of tension starts to build.  In the subsequent chapters for Jessie the background is white with a black crevasse.  Her chapters are always the number plus a half.  This is an excellent technique for bringing us more intimately into the story.

Author Dan Gemeinhart describes his characters and their situations expertly, until we feel as though we know each one of them personally, even those who enter the plot briefly.  It's in the little details, the looks on their faces, their body posture and their actions.  Even those hardened by life, committing crimes or following rules, find it in themselves to extend small kindnesses.

We should all wish for friends like Jessie and Beau and strangers like the park biologist Wesley.  Jessie carefully weighs all the conversations she has had with Mark over the years, torn between two rights but as loyal as Beau.  You can tell Gemeinhart has known the love of at least one dog.  Each moment between Mark and Beau is portrayed with moving sincerity.  Wesley's wisdom born of his own grief and his compassionate understanding of Mark are extraordinary chapters.

Here are several passages from the book.  One other technique Gemeinhart employs, along with his cliff-hanger chapter endings, in his writing is the use of the word truth.  As the story progresses, reaching a breaking point, it appears more frequently.

Beau was a small dog.  But size doesn't tell you anything about how important something is.
Beau came out of that duffel bag like hot burning justice.  Like all the right kinds of anger.  Like everything the world ever needed.  He came out into the darkness and the blood of that cold city street fast and loud and hard, all teeth and bark and bravery.

Scared.  A morning walk.
A question needs an answer.
Knuckles on the door.  (Haiku is a significant part of the story.)
Mark's mom answered.  She looked like she hadn't slept all night.  Jessie rubbed Mark's note between her fingers in her pocket.
"We haven't heard anything, honey," his mom said.  "I'm sorry."
"Why did Mark run away?" Jessie asked the question quick, before she lost her nerve.  There was no time for "good morning."  And it wasn't a good morning, anyway.

His next words weren't quite so smooth, not quite as low and even.  "A daddy is supposed to keep his kids safe.  He's supposed to protect them.  That's all there is to it.  That's the truth. ..."


Several days ago I stayed up until 2AM to finish this book.  Just moments ago I finished it again.  Some books like The Honest Truth written by Dan Gemeinhart need to be read more than once.  There is so much life in them they must first be taken in huge gulps, then again a little at a time to fully appreciate the beauty.  I highly recommend this title; a must read 2015 book.

For more information about Dan Gemeinhart and his work follow the link attached to his name to access his website. Dan Gemeinhart was interviewed at The Sweet Sixteens and at the American Booksellers Association.  Dan Gemeinhart is featured at teacher librarian extraordinaire and blogger John Schumacher's Watch. Connect. Read. Please take the time to watch each of the videos created by author Dan Gemeinhart.  They add to the richness of the reading.