Love And Relations
(MAYNARD)
Fourteen-year-old Nate Chance knows that times are hard on his 400-acre Montana dairy farm. His
dad has been having a streak of bad luck: if it wasn''t milk virus, it was
drought, or the need to buy expensive equipment. And it doesn''t help that
Poppa, his mother''s father, seems to think this is all his son-in-law''s fault
for not being a better farmer. On top of all this, Mom and Dad''s fights are
getting worse all the time.
Still, Nate and his little sister, Junie, are able to appreciate many things
that make their father special: his ability to build anything, rattle off
batting averages and answer just about any question in science. So when Nate
comes home from school one day to find police officers leading his father away
with blood pouring down his face, he finds his world shattered and his
loyalties torn. At last, he learns that his father, after a botched suicide
attempt, has been left blind and sent to a mental institution.
In the coming months, Nate and Junie find themselves confronting the
prejudice of classmates and their families. Despite the trauma at home, Nate
tries to focus on something close to his heart: the eighth-grade science fair.
He dreams of winning first prize and showing his father the trophy. Paired with
a girl named Naomi, who struggles with her own difficult family situation, Nate
determines to build something called a cloud chamber, an apparatus to make
atomic particles visible to the naked eye.
Nate, Junie and Naomi are appealing characters. Maynard shows us their
attempts to balance the world of school and peer relationships, while at the
same time trying to sort through the tumultuous events in their families.
Somehow, by the end of this difficult year, Nate and Naomi succeed in
building the cloud chamber. As it turns out, Nate does not achieve the public
recognition of which he had dreamed. Still, he finds a way to use the cloud
chamber to come to a better appreciation of both of his parents, and an
acceptance of the future.
Resumos Relacionados
- The Testament
- Nothing Can Keep Us Together
- The Children Of Willow Farm.
- End Of The Spear
- The Defailer
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