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Book Review: Lemons

July 17, 2018 By Bradley Weber

cover for lemons

The cover for Melissa Savage’s latest book, Lemons.

 

LEMONS

By Melissa Savage

Yearling, 2017

Age Range:  8 – 12 years

Grades:  3rd through 8th Grade

Readership:  All genders

***Recommended

In Lemons, author Melissa Savage blends the comedy of the fish-out-of-water story and the zaniness of Bigfoot investigation with the real emotions of characters struggling with their individual losses.

It’s 1974. The Vietnam War is over; Nixon’s quit the White House; and Lemonade Liberty Witt is being sent to live with her only surviving relative: her dead mom’s estranged father.

While Lem banks on her 5th grade teacher requesting custody of Lem so she can stay in San Francisco, Lem must deal with all the rage and sadness of losing her mother, losing her place in the world, being under the care of someone she didn’t even know existed, and of being sent to a backwoods town that happens to be the Bigfoot Capital of the World.

It’s this last item which helps Lem; her grandfather, Charlie; and Tobin, the cryptid-obsessed neighbor boy who’s father didn’t quite make it home from the war. Though Lem joins Tobin on his Bigfoot hunt because she has nothing better to do, the investigation allows them all to redirect their angers and griefs long enough to begin healing.

Ms. Savage’s prose is crisp and well-paced. For a book full of people dealing with personal loss,  Ms. Savage gives everyone’s emotions their due without overwhelming the characters, the story, or the reader. The characters consciously chose restraint in situations that—on TV, in movies, or in lesser works—would be amped-up for effect. With any luck, young readers will pick up on this and see it as a better way to handle overwhelming emotions.

Ms. Savage’s second book, The Truth About Martians hits shelves in early October.

For your copy of Lemons, and to pre-order The Truth About Martians, visit Anderson’s Bookshop or your local independently owned bookstore.

For more information about Melissa Savage, visit her website at https://melissadsavage.com/.

 

TTAM_Cover
Cover for Melissa Savage’s forthcoming book, The Truth About Martians.

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Kid's Stuff Tagged With: book reviews, Lemons, Melissa Savage

Shipwrecked (A Poem About Being Shipwrecked)

January 8, 2018 By Bradley Weber

(image from http://flashlarevista.com/content/in-boat-sea.html)

“No verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job”

— T. S. Eliot 

The challenge was self-imposed and wholly unnecessary: Write a poem with only ten lines per stanza and only two words per line, any length on any subject.

Here’s the result.

(It should come as a surprise to exactly no one that this piece takes an ugly turn early on then steers into it.)

Enjoy!

 

SHIPWRECKED

By Bradley James Weber

FIRST DAY

Nine men

One lifeboat

First Officer

Now Captain

Eight passengers

One oar

Zero rations

Endless horizon

No compass

 

SECOND DAY

Air: equatorial

Sun: blinding

Tongues: parched

Lips: cracked

Water: none

Less food

Nine men

One wounded

One malcontent

 

FOURTH DAY

No land

No ship

No respite

No rescue

Sunburned eyes

Stomach cramps

Fata Morgana

Madness brews

 

FIFTH DAY

One captain

Eight men

Nine straws

One short

“Why draw?”

The malcontent:

“Kill him.”

The dying:

“Yes, lord.”

 

DAY SIX

Eight castaways

Seven sated

One abstained

“Pure savagery.”

Bloody work

Bloody hands

Bloody sea

One lifeboat

Attracting sharks

 

DAY SEVEN

The malcontent

spreads dissent

“Land ho?

Ship ahoy?

Not likely.

Hunger returns!

Cowardly ‘captain,’

who’s next?

Decide already!”

 

DAY EIGHT

Abstainer dead,

stolen overnight.

Seven straws

Become toothpicks.

Offal overboard

Sharks return

Selene’s crown,

Luminous, enchanting

Storm’s harbinger

 

DAY NINE

Glorious downpour!

Quenching rain!

Huzzah! Huzzah!

Relief stillborn.

Savage lighting

Heavy gales

Rudder useless

“Grab something!”

“Hold fast!”

 

DAY TEN

Three lost,

Four remain.

The malcontent,

Two lickspittles,

The captain––

Badly wounded.

“Die choking.”

The malcontent:

“You first.”

 

DAY FOURTEEN

Sundown, starlight

Waxing moon

Pensive sea

Restless sharks

Three men––

Forward, aft,

Amidships crouched––

Ever vigilant

Entertaining hunger

 

DAY NINETEEN

Human bones

Thrice gnawed

Cracked, sucked

Gnawed again

No avail

Futile, exhausting

“Like prayer.”

The malcontent:

“Abandon hope.”

 

DAY TWENTY

Two remain.

One astern––

Tearless, broken––

Overboard slipped

Midnight’s suicide

Alone together

The malcontent

The other

Battle sleep

 

DAY TWENTY-NINE

S. S. Duneeden

“Captain, sir?

Lifeboat spotted,

Port bow.”

The captain:

“Anyone aboard?”

“Unknown, sir.”

“Best investigate.”

“Yes, sir.”

 

Word spreads

Doctor ’roused

Idle crew

Crowding rails

Captain’s command:

“Engines stop.”

Duneeden drifts

Distance closes

All hands

Holding breath

 

Hopeful silence

Woefully broken

Curses, prayer

Revulsion, despair

Bones bleached

Bloody thwarts

Hunger, madness

Souls abandoned

Horror’s Testimony

Witnessed, notarized

 

Everywhere, everywhere

Fleshy strips

Salted, drying

Nearly cured.

Asleep astern

The malcontent

Charon’s helmsman

Meat–surrounded

Peacefully cradling

Someone’s head.

Filed Under: Writing

January 7, 2018 By Bradley Weber

Bought a new Wacom Intuos drawing tablet with some Xmas/Birthday cash that came my way this year. Very happy to be working with it again. Lots to relearn.

 

https://www.bradleyjamesweber.com/2018/01/07/2126/

Filed Under: Art

Avenge-0 — .38 Caliber Discount

December 31, 2017 By Bradley Weber

Having finished the first two pages of Avenge-O The Crimefighting Robot only to find that Supermarket Action! wasn’t happening killed my enthusiasm to finish the rest if it.

A few years later, I contracted San Diego cartoonist Jorge Pacheco to tackle the second part of the story. He did a nice job.

(Click on the first image to view the gallery.)

Story by Bradley James Weber

Art by Jorge Pacheco

(Copyright 2007 Bradley James Weber)

Filed Under: Comics, Writing

Avenge-0 the Crime Fighting Robot #1

December 31, 2017 By Bradley Weber

Way back when the Art Sunday gang was the Fine Arts Guild, somebody came up with the idea of doing a group comic. Everybody would get five pages. The title and theme: Supermarket Action! I thought this would be a fine showcase for the crimefighting robot idea that I’d been kicking around for a while.

For one reason or another, Supermarket Action! never got off the ground.

Here are the first two pages of my five. You can read the other three at the “.38 Caliber Discount” post.

(Click the first image to view the gallery)

 

Filed Under: Comics, Writing

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