When I was a kid, I did anything that gave me the sensation of flying, riding out of control downhill on a bike, pushing the wide arc in a circle behind a turning boat on skis, leaping out of a tree hoping to cling to the fat scratchy rope to get the biggest swing ever before landing on my on my feet and feeling that jangly-nervy feeling that meant I was doing it wrong, even grabbing the cables of a cargo parachute on a windy day and ending up bouncing ten feet into the air before being dragged across corn stubble left after the harvest. I did anything to feel space and time rush past me.
I never even minded sitting in the back of the boat waiting for my turn to ski either. I'd just lean out over the water and look at the water rushing under my fingertips just feeling the speed until Grandpa yelled for me to get all the way back into the boat.
The books I chose then reflected that same need, Peter Pan, Bednobs and Broomsticks, and later, Roald Dahl's book, Going Solo. I still pick adventure books this way, sometimes reading books that were intended for middle grades.
Can I read and picture myself sailing the skies?
Destiny's Gambit by RJ Wood, though I'm old and slower than I've ever been, is a book that lets me imagine I'm a kid again, feeling the rush of flying, of spinning, of rushing through a crush of flying asteroids or picturing the battle against enemy ships. It reads like a classic for middle grade readers.
The story begins with Jake, a kid who feels the frustration of being different somehow and his meandering in an attempt to understand himself. Jake finds a boat in the middle of a field of grass. It fuels his imagination and the next thing you know he's off on a nautical adventure. The cool thing is that he finds some intense friends along the way. How can you have an adventure without friends? The other cool thing is that this adventure is in space so things are different. Sound in a vacuum, remember that? And 'an object in motion tends to stay in motion' especially without gravity or friction or anything. And what about oxygen? Yeah, well that's all worked into Jake's universe. But the coolest thing is that when you're in space you have to ask yourself what up actually means. Jake gets used to all this stuff, plus some pretty radical 'people.'
If you know anyone who loves the rush of space and time, then Destiny's Gambit is a good read for them, even if they have grown up and slowed down everywhere except in their dreams.
The coolest thing is that Wood's next book Beyond the Moon is coming out soon! Check it out.
Thank you for listening, jb
I never even minded sitting in the back of the boat waiting for my turn to ski either. I'd just lean out over the water and look at the water rushing under my fingertips just feeling the speed until Grandpa yelled for me to get all the way back into the boat.
The books I chose then reflected that same need, Peter Pan, Bednobs and Broomsticks, and later, Roald Dahl's book, Going Solo. I still pick adventure books this way, sometimes reading books that were intended for middle grades.
Can I read and picture myself sailing the skies?
Destiny's Gambit by RJ Wood, though I'm old and slower than I've ever been, is a book that lets me imagine I'm a kid again, feeling the rush of flying, of spinning, of rushing through a crush of flying asteroids or picturing the battle against enemy ships. It reads like a classic for middle grade readers.
The story begins with Jake, a kid who feels the frustration of being different somehow and his meandering in an attempt to understand himself. Jake finds a boat in the middle of a field of grass. It fuels his imagination and the next thing you know he's off on a nautical adventure. The cool thing is that he finds some intense friends along the way. How can you have an adventure without friends? The other cool thing is that this adventure is in space so things are different. Sound in a vacuum, remember that? And 'an object in motion tends to stay in motion' especially without gravity or friction or anything. And what about oxygen? Yeah, well that's all worked into Jake's universe. But the coolest thing is that when you're in space you have to ask yourself what up actually means. Jake gets used to all this stuff, plus some pretty radical 'people.'
If you know anyone who loves the rush of space and time, then Destiny's Gambit is a good read for them, even if they have grown up and slowed down everywhere except in their dreams.
The coolest thing is that Wood's next book Beyond the Moon is coming out soon! Check it out.
Thank you for listening, jb
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