Tony Abbott (1) (1952–)

After his grandmother dies, thirteen year-old Jason and his father travel to St. Petersburg, Florida, to clean out her house. What a horrible way to spend summer break! He has no interest in going through the closets and drawers of an old woman he’s never met. Secretly, Jason thinks his mother insisted he go so he could keep an eye on his father, who drinks too much. Jason suspects that his parents are on the verge of a divorce. His mom is so busy at work, and she feels frustrated by his father’s silent despair. But, these concerns fade into the background when a strange phone caller tells Jason that “you can learn a lot at a desk.” Realizing that the person is hinting that Jason should look in his grandmother’s desk, he does, and he finds an old postcard of the DeSoto Hotel, the hotel owned by his great-grandfather. Later, as he looks through a file box of important papers, Jason finds a magazine in a file folder labeled “EB.” Bizarre Mysteries contains a story by Emerson Beale entitled “Twin Palms: A Novel of Thrilling Terror.” Could Emerson Beale be the “EB” on the folder? As Jason reads the story and pursues the clues given on the first postcard and those that keep mysteriously appearing, he begins to uncover his grandmother’s past- who his father’s father was and why his grandmother spent most of her adult life in a wheelchair.
©2024 Kathy Maxwell at https://bookskidslike.com… (more)

Bobby, his mother, and his older brother are taking Grandmother and her car to Florida. Starting in Ohio, they visit various Civil War sites because of Ricky’s obsession with that historical period. Bobby feels detached from his brother’s enthusiasm, but thoughts of President Lincoln’s assassination, Grandfather’s fatal heart attack several months before, and the grizzly deaths of so many Civil War soldiers begin merging in Bobby’s mind. For the first time in his life, he begins to see a world outside of his own self-absorption. When his mother wrecks the car in Atlanta, Bobby dreads returning home on the bus with “chocolates” (his name for colored people). As they wait to board the bus, he learns that his family bought the last three tickets promised to a black family desperate to get to Dalton, Georgia, where their young son is the presumed victim of racial violence. Their despair stirs something in Bobby’s heart.
©2024 Kathy Maxwell at https://bookskidslike.com… (more)