Title:
STILLVILLE
Genre:
MG Contemporary
Word
Count: 44,000 words
Query:
STILLVILLE
is the story of 12-year-old Nathan Stone, a budding naturalist and the sole
Jewish boy in a small Iowa town where change has always been slow and
unwelcome. Until it comes fast and furious. Nathan first loses his best friend
to the closing of the town’s main employer, a meat-packing plant. Stillville’s
economic fortunes appear revived when Hasidic Jews arrive to reopen the plant
as a producer of kosher meats. But it proves an imperfect blessing.
Before
long Stillville and Nathan not only have to adjust to the Hasids and their
strange, often antagonistic ways, but an army of Spanish-speaking immigrant
workers. A crime wave, the town’s first, adds to the tension. As relations
between the newcomers and the natives strain, Nathan and his family find
themselves in an uncomfortable middle.
In
the wake of these changes, Nathan is drawn into alliances and friendships he
would have never anticipated, including a special one with one of the
newcomers, a Hasidic boy named Lev. Both of their lives are permanently marked
by their evolving friendship.
STILLVILLE
is a 44,000-word multi-layered middle-grade contemporary which addresses
important issues of religion, self-identity and science. It will entice young
readers by taking them inside a religious sect, presenting a scientific
challenge along with a crime mystery, while drawing them into the deepening and
complex relationships among the main characters. Think of a middle grade THE
CHOSEN with baseball replaced by biology.
I
am a widely published magazine journalist and essayist, with bylines in
numerous national publications including the major in-flights (American,
United, Continental), Fast Company, Moment, Salon.com, themillions.com
and The Atlantic Monthly. I’ve been a finalist for Best American
Essays. My debut young adult novel, IN REAL LIFE, the story of a computer
gaming prodigy, is scheduled for publication from Tuttle Publishing in the fall
of 2014. This book was repped by Kate Epstein, who no longer handles fiction.
First
250:
The
first, glorious day of summer vacation and something felt wrong. I stood in the
middle of the meadow by our house and took in a deep breath through my nose,
hoping to smell the purple blooms of the early clover under my feet, the weeds
and natives shooting up out of the damp, rich Iowa soil. All I could smell was
the new meat packing plant. A harsh, disgusting cross between burnt and rotten.
Maybe the wind would change. I could always hope.
I
slowly scanned the entire field, all the way to the tree line, attuned to the
slightest movement of butterflies of interest. Nothing. It was if as if they’d
all left Stillville, like so many of my classmates. No swooping swallowtails,
no dancing fritillaries, not even a gliding monarch.
I
should have been feeling great, even with the stink, even without the
butterflies. The sun was shining. I had all day to traipse through the fields
and woods. The normal ingredients for a perfectly happy summer day. So what was
my problem?
For
one thing Clay, my best buddy, was gone. He and I had been kicking around these
fields since kindergarten. Until his Dad gave up on finding another job as good
as the one he’d had at the old packing plant. They’d left town halfway through
sixth grade.
That
left Henry, the third of what our fifth grade teacher called “the three
musketeers” – Clay, Henry and me, Nathan. Clay had moved. Now Henry had
changed. When I reminded him about the cool outdoor things the three of us had
done pervious summers he called it kids stuff. He just wanted to play his Xbox
and talk about girls. Not that there was anything wrong with Xbox and girls.
But who wants to stay inside all summer?
Hi, shooting one arrow for a partial. :)
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