THE ABILENE KID: DEAD MAN’S HAND — Review

Thought for the Day:

“Try to get your characters into interesting trouble. Allow your characters to misbehave. Let them stay out after 11.”


~ Charles Baxter ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Humor in kids’ stories is always a great element to add. HERE is a terrific post by John Bladek on Adding Humor to Children’s Stories.

I’m not a graphic novel person, but I found the Writer’s Digest article HERE by Aliza Layne pretty interesting. It has 7 Tips for Writing a Middle-Grade Graphic Novel Readers Will Love.

When I hear writers say they love revision, I just can’t imagine feeling that way. Maybe I will someday. HERE is a great article by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett from the Gotham Writers page with a bunch of writers talking about revision.

What a week it has been. I won’t even mention the news, because it is almost all bad and, frankly, frightening. I’m doing my best to think about other things. Of course, I have baseball, and my Giants are doing pretty well, but not as well as they can. We traded a couple of good young pitchers to Boston for Rafeal Devers. I hated to lose to young pitchers, but we needed a big bat, and Devers has that. I hope it was the right thing to do. Time will tell. I have found a wonderful new show on PBS that is absolutely fascinating. I never outgrew my love of dinosauers, and when I saw an ad on my local PBS station for Walking with Dinosauers, I had to check it out. The parts of the programs that are in the field with scientists are so interesting, and the parts that show what the dinosauers lives must have been like are beautifully done. The animation is spectacular. I have no idea how many episodes there are but quite a few. I think you can also watch it on Prime. It is well worth your time.

Last week, I offered a gently-read ARC of BAD BADGER: A LOVE STORY by Maryrose Wood and illustrated by Giulia Ghigiini to one of you. The lucky winner this week is Susan Wroble. Congratulations, Susan! If you don’t know Susan, she is a non-ficiton kidlit writer from Colorado. You can learn more about her at her site HERE. Susan, I will get your book out to you soon.

I was contacted recently by John V. Madormo, author of a new middle-grade novel, asking if I would like a copy in exchange for an honest review. The concept sounded interesting, so I told him to send it along. It turns out it is the first in a series. It’s called THE ABILENE KID: DEAD MAN’S HAND. It’s a historical Western with a twist.

Dominick Dalasandro is a middle school student with a fascination — no, an obsession — with the Old West. When his teacher assigns everyone to write an essay on the most influential person in their lives, Dominick doesn’t even have to think about it. He knows he will write about Lone Wolf Malone, the greatest sheriff that ever lived. His teacher isn’t very happy. Dominick goes to the public library where the librarian is a good friend and fellow Old West afficianado. She has found a rare book about Lone Wolf Malone, and before she puts it in the special collections, she lets Dominick read it. He takes it to the library basement, opens the book, and blows dust off the first page. The dust swirls around, and Lone Wolf Malone appears. He offers to take Dominick back in time to become Lone Wolf’s assistant. No Old-West-obsessed 12-year-old boy could resist.

In Abilene, Dominick takes to his new experience like a duck to water. He takes on the moniker of Pete Moss. Lone Wolf buys him some proper clothes and gets him a horse to use and generally takes good care of Pete. Almost immediately the two have a mystery on their hands. Two kids, a brother and sister, have gone missing. The girl, Abby, is someone Pete has met and likes very much. Pete and Lone Wolf get on the case, but some other problems get in the way, causing Pete to work quite a bit on his own.

John V. Madormo has written a book that young readers should enjoy, especially those who have an interest in the Old West. For those of us raised on The Rifleman and Bonanza, that’s not hard to relate to, but I wonder how many of today’s youngsters have that interest. Kids don’t seem to play cowboys anymore. That said, I’m sure there is something of an audience for it. It is well written and the characters are engaging and believable. Some sections could use trimming as there is some repetition, but otherwise this is a good story.

Please don’t forget to check for other Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts at Greg Pattridge’s blog HERE.