Image: Red Chair Press
Middle Grade Monday features Into the Wind by William Loizeaux. 186 p. Red Chair Press, March 2, 2021. 9781947159426. (Review of finished copy courtesy of publisher.)
Middle Grade Monday wishes an early book birthday (tomorrow) to Into the Wind by William Loiseaux. I broke my no-star policy on Goodreads to give this gentle, heartwarming story of intergenerational friendship five. It was just lovely. Rusty is relatable as a tween with a couple of outsized problems - the possibility of repeating fifth grade thanks to failing math and the absence of his mother due to depression. She is in a residential hospital on the mainland trying to recover. It doesn't help that his bossy older sister is particularly obnoxious at home.
He takes refuge in restoring a sailboat that a neighbor gave him and also in reading about sailing. He's startled one day by the request of an elderly, wheelchair-bound art garage owner. She asks him to take her sailing and then persists when he turns her down. She apologizes for making him uncomfortable and several days later, offers him a job helping her around her cramped and cluttered cottage. He can use the money for outfitting his sailboat and takes the job.
It's mostly menial labor, but she insists that Rusty do his math homework and have lunch before tackling his chores. The two develop and easy routine and Rusty gets to know this feisty neighbor.
This is slow-paced, introspective and perfect for your readers who like sad but gentle books. Clocking in at 186 pages and containing warm, pencil illustrations, it will also appeal to readers who are still developing stamina. As a land-lubber, I found the sailing descriptions accessible and interesting.
Between posting a version of this review to Goodreads on February 7 and publishing this post, I came across a thread on Twitter bemoaning the fate of quiet books as unmarketable. I didn't delve deeply into it, but hope that isn't true. Each year, I have a new crop of readers to get to know and in each grade. I have a fair number of thoughtful readers who definitely want quiet books and sometimes I have a challenge finding enough for them, for they tend to be students who love to read.
I hope that Into the Wind finds its readers. It's a sweet little book with a great big heart and publishes tomorrow. I'm looking forward to book talking this with my students.
