3/23/2023 0 Comments Been there done thatThe lessons Sophie learns about her childhood home, love and what it means to be endangered will resonate with readers. Realistic characters (ape and human) deal with disturbing situations described in graphic, but never gratuitous detail. ![]() Schrefer jumps from his usual teen suspense to craft this well-researched tale of jungle survival set during a fictional conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Unable to take Otto out of the country, she decides finding her mother hundreds of miles to the north is her only choice. War breaks out, and after missing a U.N. flight out, Sophie must hide herself and Otto from violent militants and starving villagers. A week before Sophie's to return home to her father in Miami, her mother must take advantage of a charter flight to relocate some apes, and she leaves Sophie with Otto and the sanctuary workers. Though her Congolese mother is not pleased Sophie paid for the ape, she is proud that Sophie works to bond with Otto, the baby. On her way to spend the summer at the bonobo sanctuary her mother runs, 14-year-old Sophie rescues a sickly baby bonobo from a trafficker. What Rebecca Stern and Brad Wolfe did for personal essays in Breakfast on Mars (2013), Winchell delivers for teachers of short fiction.Ī fine collection and a boon to writing teachers everywhere.Ĭongolese-American Sophie makes a harrowing trek through a war-torn jungle to protect a young bonobo. Though no single story is a knockout, the collection is consistently strong and useful. ![]() The stories are purposive, out to show the connections between personal experience and fiction, so there’s a sameness in the first-person point of view and the reminiscent tone, though variety is provided by stories in a graphic novel format, monologues, and verse. ![]() Stories are arranged by theme-peer pressure regret, guilt, and sadness being surprised by what some people do putting others first asking questions about the world around you and dealing with change. A brief “What Really Happened” section precedes each story so that readers can compare the real-life experiences with the fictional renderings. Claire Legrand transmutes a personal experience into an eerie dystopian tale with a tone akin to that of “The Lottery.” Julia Alvarez’s “My First True Frenemy” combines the politics of the Dominican Republic, immigration to the United States, and the difficulties of forging a friendship. Schmidt kicks off the collection with a fine story based on a summer-camp job in which his fictional character falls in love and deals with some scary peer pressure. Twenty writers share how they drew upon personal experiences to write short fiction.
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