Dark Starry Morning: Stories of This World and Beyond (Albert Whitman Prairie Books) [Paperback]

David Patneaude (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1998 | Age Level: 10 and up | Series: Albert Whitman Prairie Books

A collection of six stories by the author of Someone Was Watching follows the lives of young people who enter the unknown, such as Tommy and Eleanor, who take a school bus ride to the verge of eternity.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-8?Patneaude's curious collection of six short stories set mostly in the Pacific Northwest falls a little short of Twilight Zone eeriness (two selections have no supernatural elements at all), but still includes enough of those elements to make some of the tales compelling, especially to hi/lo readers. Each tale presents a gentle, wistful search for a perfect world free of real?or imagined?monsters. Most of the protagonists are junior-high students; each narrator chronicles a special event that helped him or her get through a tough adolescent time. Plots revolve around problems such as divorce, moving into a new house, a dying relative, saving the whales, and confronting bedroom fears. Jimi Hendrix, a spaceship, a victim of racism, a ghostly runner, and an alter-ego clown all play roles in these stories that occasionally flirt with sentimentality. On the whole, a mixed bag.?John Sigwald, Unger Memorial Library, Plainview, TX
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gr. 5^-8. Readers too young for Stephen King will find satisfaction in these six tales in which the encounters with the unknown are beneficent yet still mildly eerie. Isaac wins an important invitational cross-country meet only to discover his running mate and trainer is a ghost. Cort, a young saxophone player, develops a special relationship with a trapped orca. Even though some of the tales telegraph their outcome, others are tautly woven. Patneaude keeps his action tight and quickly establishes character to provide young readers with interesting, short, vicarious adventures into the mysteries of this world and beyond. Linda Ward-Callaghan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company (March 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807514756
• ISBN-13: 978-0807514757
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,796,127 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Patneaude finally heeded the advice, "It's never too late to have a happy childhood," and began writing seriously (more or less) in the mid 1980's. His first novel, SOMEONE WAS WATCHING, winner of South Dakota and Utah book awards, was published in 1993. His books have been placed on young readers' lists in more than thirty states and honored by the New York Public Library (THE LAST MAN'S REWARD), the Society of School Librarians International (FRAMED IN FIRE), the Winnetka (Illinois) Public Library's "One Book, Two Villages" program (THIN WOOD WALLS), and the Washington State Public Library (THIN WOOD WALLS). His newest book, EPITAPH ROAD, was published in March 2010. When he's not sitting in a coffee shop writing, or at a school or library or conference talking about writing, or out on the running trail thinking about writing, he's at home in Woodinville, Washington with his wife Judy, a junior high librarian.