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(4.69) | 2 | Young Adult Fiction.
Young Adult Literature.
HTML: A resourceful teenager in rural Vermont struggles to hold on to the family home while his mom recovers from addiction in this striking debut novel.
Ian Gray isn't supposed to have a dog, but a lot of things that shouldn't happen end up happening anyway. And Gather, Ian's adopted pup, is good company now that Ian has to quit the basketball team, find a job, and take care of his mom as she tries to overcome her opioid addiction. Despite the obstacles thrown their way, Ian is determined to keep his family afloat no matter what it takes. And for a little while, things are looking up: Ian makes friends, and his fondness for the outdoors and for fixing things lands him work helping neighbors. But an unforeseen tragedy results in Ian and his dog taking off on the run, trying to evade a future that would mean leaving their house and their land. Even if the community comes together to help him, would Ian and Gather have a home to return to?
Told in a wry, cautious first-person voice that meanders like a dog circling to be sure it's safe to lie down, Kenneth M. Cadow's resonant debut brings an emotional and ultimately hopeful story of one teen's resilience in the face of unthinkable hardships. . … (more) |
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To the memory of my father, Harry W. Cadow, who was a rural teacher and a farmer at heart.  | |
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You see people doing things they shouldn't. | |
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...took out my drawing, which sucked. It was supposed to be an owl, which Mom liked, but it looked like a cat, which Mom could do without, but Stint, the art teacher, says owls are just cats with wings. (p. 61) It's the difference between knowing about the woods and knowing the woods. (p. 111) Gramps and Dad took me hunting there pretty much from the time I could walk until Gramps died. There's nothing better than prowling through the woods, looking for every little thing and just listening. You might hear a chickadee or a woodpecker or a red squirrel, or spot a coyote or a gray fox. You're up there, sitting so still waiting for a deer, you get a little weasel to run across your foot without even knowing you're there, and I can tell you, you feel like you belong. I know, because exactly that happened to me during bow season when I was maybe eight years old. (p. 127) Water and the land, that's what I notice and could get an A in, if anybody cared, ... (p. 132) If humans die off, nature, just like the picture of Dorian Gray, will return to its pristine form in the blink of an eye. (p. 150) Your body grew from the food this land put into you, the gardens, the apples, morel mushrooms, the venison, the syrup, the beechnuts, and ramps - those wild leeks that come out just before turkey season. All those things put the meat on my bones.
I am the woods and the fields and the bass and the trout from our rivers and streams. You are what you eat, you are what you do, and everything I ever learned to do, I learned here, in my town and on our land. (p. 231-2) If you don't have a lot of shit to do, you can get a lot of shit done. That's how beavers make long, tall dams, mice get into whatever the hell they want, bees make honeycomb, birds make nests. It's all on account of them not having any homework or other stupid shit. (p. 267) "I am very much at a point in my life where I'm clear to myself, I'm a she-her-hers, but I've never loved the baggage that goes with a Mrs. or a Ms." So, she explains, she's filling out this online form after she's been hired at our school, and where it says "prefix/title," she leaves it blank. When she goes to submit, she sees it's a mandatory field ... So she clicks on Other and a fill-in line comes up and spur of the moment, she looks at Other and realizes if you remove the "o" from the front and the "r" from the back, you get "the." And so, she types in "The." And when the school prints out the signs for the classroom doors, its says THE SHARPE. | |
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▾References References to this work on external resources.  Wikipedia in English
None ▾Book descriptions Young Adult Fiction.
Young Adult Literature.
HTML: A resourceful teenager in rural Vermont struggles to hold on to the family home while his mom recovers from addiction in this striking debut novel.
Ian Gray isn't supposed to have a dog, but a lot of things that shouldn't happen end up happening anyway. And Gather, Ian's adopted pup, is good company now that Ian has to quit the basketball team, find a job, and take care of his mom as she tries to overcome her opioid addiction. Despite the obstacles thrown their way, Ian is determined to keep his family afloat no matter what it takes. And for a little while, things are looking up: Ian makes friends, and his fondness for the outdoors and for fixing things lands him work helping neighbors. But an unforeseen tragedy results in Ian and his dog taking off on the run, trying to evade a future that would mean leaving their house and their land. Even if the community comes together to help him, would Ian and Gather have a home to return to?
Told in a wry, cautious first-person voice that meanders like a dog circling to be sure it's safe to lie down, Kenneth M. Cadow's resonant debut brings an emotional and ultimately hopeful story of one teen's resilience in the face of unthinkable hardships. . ▾Library descriptions No library descriptions found. ▾LibraryThing members' description |
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Sixteen-year-old Ian - legal name Dorian Gray - lives in rural Vermont with his mom on what's left of the family farm, most of which was sold off, though when Ian was younger, Gramps promised the land would be his someday. Now that Gramps is dead, his dad lives in Tennessee, and Gram moved down to North Carolina, Ian still holds to that hope, even as his mom struggles with drug use, car trouble, and finding and keeping a job. Ian quits the basketball team, which he loves, to help support himself and his mom - and the enormous, gentle stray dog Ian names Gather.
*Spoiler alert*
When Ian's mom dies, teachers, neighbors, and community members rally around Ian, but he's still being sent away to live with his dad. But when his former friend's untrustworthy dad lets on that Gather won't be welcome, Ian flees, disappearing into the woods with his dog and surviving perfectly well until he can return to his real home, with the help of his teacher, The Sharpe; her partner, Christine (a lawyer, usefully); and others from home.
Throughout, Ian has a teen's cleareyed, no-bullshit view of a world with its priorities out of whack - a world that doesn't recognize or value his capabilities or knowledge. He's a person who can fix things, living in a throwaway culture; a hunter who understands and loves the land.
Printz Honor.
Quotes
Even good people can get you into trouble. (6)
"Sometimes, the closer you're paying attention, the more likely you are to be surprised." (Gramps to Ian, 18)
The things you remember. It makes a mess inside of you. (26)
But somebody from away telling me our ways are dumb, that just brings the goddam worst out of me. (72)
"Universities love to think about things. They just don't want to act on them." (Sylvia's dad John to Ian, 151)
"It's okay to drink to think, but don't ever drink to not think, Ian." (Gramps, 186)
It's interesting the parts of your life you keep so separate. (220)
If you don't have a lot of shit to do, you can get a lot of shit done. (267)
...when you think you're all done with a telling, you'd be surprised what people still want to know. I think I'm done, but people might feel different. (313)
It's a lot easier figuring out the land you come from than it is figuring out the people you come from. (321) (