Those who are Lost Must Be Found
Today I will be reviewing a book that I was surprisingly disappointed with. A couple of days ago I finished the novel, Navigating Early, by Clare Vanderpool. I have read both of the books Clare Vanderpool has written and I was surprised at how different they were. Moon Over Manifest, her first book, has come to be one of my all time favorite reads. It was a historical fiction novel that just drew me in from the beginning. However, with Navigating Early, I felt that it was quite the opposite. The beginning started off slow and weak. The first half of the novel was boring and was confusing at some parts. With all of this in mind I am going to Navigating Early a 3.8 star rating. As disappointing as the first half was, the story finished strong. If you want to give this book a try I would recommend it for kids at the age of 11 and up. With all of the bad things already said, I do have a few good things to say. Navigating Early, has won the Michael L. Printz Award and is a winner for the Booklist Books for Youth Editor’s Choice list. The one thing that I did enjoy about this novel was the characters. I feel like the characters made this story some-what acceptable because there was a big range of personalities and people.
Navigating Early is about two boys, Jack Baker and Early Auden. Jack Baker is from a Kansas town where sadly, his mother just died and his father is sending him to a military-like school, Morton Hill Academy, all the way up in Maine. Jack feels that his father doesn’t care about his mother’s death and just wants to get back to his normal life as an active military captain. To add onto that, Jack doesn’t fit into the picture that his new school has set up for him. He is scrawny and can’t even row a boat in a straight line. That is until he meets Early Auden, the strangest of boys. Early lives in a janitor’s closet at the Academy and has four goals. These goals are to prove that there are timber rattlesnakes in Maine, to find the Great Appalachian Bear, prove to the mathematicians of 1945 that the number Pi does not end, and finally, to find his brother, Fisher Auden. Fisher was a prodigy at Morton Hill Academy, winning all of the sports competitions and becoming one of the students that would always be remembered. Except, Fisher enlisted in the military and was chosen to go to France with his troop. There they were supposed to bomb a French bridge, but they were attacked and everyone in Fisher’s troop was declared dead. Early is convinced that Fisher is not dead. So, during fall break, Early and Jack go on an adventure through the woods of the Appalachian trail where they come across things they couldn't even imagine. Will they find Fisher? Can they make it back to Morton Hill Academy? But most of all, does the number Pi really end? Find out in Navigating Early.
Happy reading,
Evelyn Harrier
P.S. If you want to check out my post on Moon Over Manifest, this is the link - link!
Navigating Early is about two boys, Jack Baker and Early Auden. Jack Baker is from a Kansas town where sadly, his mother just died and his father is sending him to a military-like school, Morton Hill Academy, all the way up in Maine. Jack feels that his father doesn’t care about his mother’s death and just wants to get back to his normal life as an active military captain. To add onto that, Jack doesn’t fit into the picture that his new school has set up for him. He is scrawny and can’t even row a boat in a straight line. That is until he meets Early Auden, the strangest of boys. Early lives in a janitor’s closet at the Academy and has four goals. These goals are to prove that there are timber rattlesnakes in Maine, to find the Great Appalachian Bear, prove to the mathematicians of 1945 that the number Pi does not end, and finally, to find his brother, Fisher Auden. Fisher was a prodigy at Morton Hill Academy, winning all of the sports competitions and becoming one of the students that would always be remembered. Except, Fisher enlisted in the military and was chosen to go to France with his troop. There they were supposed to bomb a French bridge, but they were attacked and everyone in Fisher’s troop was declared dead. Early is convinced that Fisher is not dead. So, during fall break, Early and Jack go on an adventure through the woods of the Appalachian trail where they come across things they couldn't even imagine. Will they find Fisher? Can they make it back to Morton Hill Academy? But most of all, does the number Pi really end? Find out in Navigating Early.
Happy reading,
Evelyn Harrier
P.S. If you want to check out my post on Moon Over Manifest, this is the link - link!
