My Daniel Book

"Baptism in Mud and Memories"

Prairie girl Julie Creath adores her older brother, Daniel as a girl and beyond when she is a grandmother.. These two siblings enjoy a unique and intense bond of love as they are only surviving offspring of a Nebraska farm family. Despite living in a primitive soddy the plucky youth has grate dreams: to find a dinosaur skeleton and sell it for a small fortune'enough to save the family farm. Bones and Bravery are all he needs---although he does not factor in the devotion and quick wit of his little sister.

Noble aspirations, truly, but naïve Daniel is soon to be initiated into the dirty business of dinosaur hunting, excavating and profiteering. He is unprepared for unscrupulous men who lie, deceive, cheat and are even willing to commit murder for gain and fame. Three gutsy kids try to protect their amazing creek side discovery, but beware of the snakelike antagonist with deadly dreams of avarice.

Consisting mostly flashbacks the book engages in time shifts'a literary seesaw which keeps readers alert as we slip between the Present and Past in the same chapter. Young Julie's passionate memories of that fateful summer are intertwined with her long-savored trip to a city museum with her own grandchildren, two whom she confides the entire tale. Yet this spunky Grandma has a private agenda, as she saves Dinosaur Hall for the last exhibit she shows off. Will she bring a little souvenir of her girlhood, as she seeks to put closure on a painful wound, which has haunted her all her life? What emotions and memories will be revived as she confronts the reconstructed skeleton which cost her family so much! This YA book proves an exciting and dramatic read--pervaded by a grim foreboding which should be of equal interest to boy and girls. Who knows'you might have hidden dinosaur bones in your own back yard…

(February 28, 2012. I welcome dialogue with teachers.)