Slider's Son - Softcover

Rebecca Fjelland Davis

4.17

35 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1682010619 ISBN 13: 9781682010617

Publisher: North Star Press of St. Cloud, 2017

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Friendship. Danger. Murder. Grant O'Grady wants nothing more than to be a major league baseball pitcher. He's only thirteen, but his dream seems possible . . . until Big Joe turns his life upside down. Grant and his buddies are no strangers to risk. At the end of the Great Depression in small-town North Dakota, money is tight, so Grant and his friends swipe coal from the coal train when it stops in town to fill its boiler. It's risky to climb the train cars, but so is climbing the water tower to chuck snowballs at passing cars, and so is shooting out Christmas lights downtown. But risk turns into very real danger every time Big Joe shows up. After an encounter with the man one winter night in 1936, Grant's life will change forever.

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Review:

"Slider's Son begins with the discovery of a dead body and quickly turns into a mystery: who killed Big Joe Thorson? Plenty of people had motives. Rebecca Fjelland Davis deftly conveys the mood, the language, and the landscape of Depression-era North Dakota as we follow Grant O'Grady on his search for the truth and his discovery that life is a lot more complicated than he imagined. Slider's Son will pull you in deeper and deeper, all the way to the surprising verdict in the end."

- John Coy, award-winning author of Gap Life, Top of the Order, Game Changer: John McLendon and the Secret Game, and many other acclaimed titles

--John Coy "Review "

"In Slider's Son, Rebecca Fjelland Davis has composed a powerful story about community, friendship, loyalty, and right and wrong, while at the same time creating a Depression-era world that does more than most history books in helping us understand the daily challenges faced by Americans during the 1930s. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in reading a compelling tale and learning about the past at the same time."

- Brian D. Fors, Ph.D., historian and archivist, The History Writers

--Brian D. Fors "Review "

"Rebecca Fjelland Davis told me that stories move information from our heads to our hearts, and this book proves her point exactly. Readers will care so much about Grant O'Grady, Slider, Little Joe, baseball, and the murder mystery that they'll forget that they're learning essential information about the Great Plains in the late Thirties. This expertly told tale allows students to absorb important history about Hitler, tuberculosis, and discrimination against American Indians right along with loving the characters. Highly, highly recommended!"

- Kirstin Cronn-Mills, author of ALA Stonewall Award winner Beautiful Music for Ugly Children, as well as Original Fake, The Sky Always Hears Me, and other nonfiction titles

--Kirstin Cronn-Mills "Review "

"Slider's Son is a compelling mystery set during the bone-cracking cold of a North Dakota winter, but the heart of the story is the boys' friendship--a friendship so authentic you'll want to bundle up, call your best friend, and go sledding."

- Shelley Tougas, author of the highly acclaimed Finders Keepers, Graham Cracker Plot, and A Patron Saint for Junior Bridesmaids

--Shelley Tougas "Review "

About the Author:

Rebecca Fjelland Davis (also known as Becky Brooks) lives outside Mankato, Minnesota, with her husband and Newfoundland dog, Freya. She writes, rides her bike a few thousand miles a year, and walks the prairie and woods with Freya. A former marathoner and two-time women's champion of the National 24-Hour Challenge cycling event (and yes, she used to play baseball and pitched softball), she says her young characters are athletes because she doesn't understand sedentary lives. Becky's motto: "Better to burn out than to rust out." She grew up on a farm near Huxley, Iowa, and now teaches writing, humanities, and literature at South Central College in North Mankato. Her other publications include Medusa Tells All: Beauty Missing, Hair Hissing (Capstone, 2014), Chasing AllieCat (Flux, 2011), Woof and Wag: Bringing Home a Dog (Picture Window Books, 2008), Jake Riley: Irreparably Damaged (HarperCollins, 2003), and nine other children's books with Capstone Press. Her essays have also been published in various periodicals, including most recently "Grave Lesson in Winter" in Mankato Magazine in 2016.

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