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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Jan 2013, 320 pages
Paperback:
Dec 2014, 336 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Sharry Wright
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New York Times Best Seller Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool, Newbery Medalist for Moon Over Manifest, is an odyssey-like adventure of two boys' incredible quest on the Appalachian Trail where they deal with pirates, buried secrets, and extraordinary encounters.
At the end of World War II, Jack Baker, a landlocked Kansas boy, is suddenly uprooted after his mother's death and placed in a boy's boarding school in Maine. There, Jack encounters Early Auden, the strangest of boys, who reads the number pi as a story and collects clippings about the sightings of a great black bear in the nearby mountains.
Newcomer Jack feels lost yet can't help being drawn to Early, who won't believe what everyone accepts to be the truth about the Great Appalachian Bear, Timber Rattlesnakes, and the legendary school hero known as The Fish, who never returned from the war. When the boys find themselves unexpectedly alone at school, they embark on a quest on the Appalachian Trail in search of the great black bear. But what they are searching for is sometimes different from what they find. They will meet truly strange characters, each of whom figures into the pi story Early weaves as they travel, while discovering things they never realized about themselves and others in their lives.
PROLOGUE
If I'd known what there was to know about Early Auden,
that strangest of boys, I might have been scared off, or at
least kept my distance like all the others. But I was new to
the Morton Hill Academy for Boys, and to Cape Fealty,
Maine. Fact was, I was new to anyplace outside of northeastern
Kansas.
I've heard it said that Kansas has a long-standing history
of keeping its sons and daughters close to home, but in recent
years there have been some notable exceptions. General
Eisenhower, for one. Everyone was so proud of the way
he led the Allied forces during the war with Germany. He
came back to Abilene for a big parade, but once all the
hoopla died down, he left. I don't think he plans on taking
up residence again anytime soon.
My father is in the armed services too. Captain John
Baker, Jr. He's in the navy. You know what they say. There's
two kinds of fellas: navy men and those who wish they
were. My ...
Readers who choose to follow Jack and Early on their quest will find surprise, a light shined on dark secrets, and many unexpected and accidental treasures along the way. They will leave Navigating Early with inner riches to guide them on their own quests, whatever and wherever they might be...continued
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(Reviewed by Sharry Wright).
Since the beginning of time, people have been looking up at the stars, connecting the fiery dots and telling stories about the images they create in the sky. Even in modern times, we are taught to see the man with a belt and a sword, the regal chair, a big dipper and a little one; once you've located at least an approximate location, Orion, Cassiopeia's Chair, the Big and Little Dipper, are fairly easy to identify, although it takes practice and real imagination to see a dragon, a swan, a crab, an archer or the many other constellations.
The Big Dipper is most likely the most famous and easily recognizable. Officially, the Big Dipper is not a constellation but rather part of the constellation known as Ursa Major, which means Big Bear...
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More books by Clare Vanderpool
If you liked Navigating Early, try these:
by Clare Vanderpool
Published 2011
Powerful in its simplicity and rich in historical detail, Clare Vanderpool's debut is a gripping story of loss and redemption.
by Gennifer Choldenko
Published 2011
Moose and the cons are about to get a lot closer in this much-anticipated sequel to Al Capone Does My Shirts. Recommended for ages 10+.
Once We Were Home
by Jennifer Rosner
From the author of The Yellow Bird Sings, a novel based on the true stories of children stolen in the wake of World War II.
The Lost English Girl
by Julia Kelly
A story of love, betrayal, and motherhood set against the backdrop of World War II and the early 1960s.
In war there are no unwounded soldiers
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