Middle Grade Audio Book: Almost Paradise, by Corabel Shofner

Title: Almost Paradise

Author: Corabel Shofner. Read by Eileen Stevens

Publication Info: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017. 288 pages in hardback. Audio edition by Blackstone Audio, 2017.

Source: Library digital resources

Publisher’s Blurb: 

Twelve-year-old Ruby Clyde Henderson’s life turns upside down the day her mother’s boyfriend holds up a convenience store, and her mother is wrongly imprisoned for assisting with the crime. Ruby and her pet pig, Bunny, find their way to her estranged Aunt Eleanor's home. Aunt Eleanor is a nun who lives on a peach orchard called Paradise, and had turned away from their family long ago. With a little patience, she and Ruby begin to get along―but Eleanor has secrets of her own, secrets that might mean more hard times for Ruby.

Ruby believes that she's the only one who can find a way to help heal her loved ones, save her mother, and bring her family back together again. But being in a family means that everyone has to work together to support each other, and being home doesn't always mean going back to where you came from.

My Review:

Ruby Clyde is one of those characters who captures your heart from the opening lines. Her life has been challenging from the get-go, but waking up in the back seat of the car on her way to who knows where tells her things have just gotten worse. Building from event to event the author creates a story that shows the adults in Ruby Clyde’s life both failing spectacularly to do right by her—and going above and beyond to be sure she is okay.

After a lifetime of being the adult to her mother’s inability to function, Ruby Clyde meets up with something too big for her to handle. Her successes—rescuing Bunny, reaching out to her aunt—come from a combination of her own gumption and adult help, and don’t always work quite as planned. There is no illusion here: Ruby can’t go it alone. But neither can she sit back and do nothing in hopes that the adults will take care of matters.

The ending took me a bit by surprise, and I’m still not sure what I think of it. The book does leave the reader all too aware that the criminal justice system sometimes fails spectacularly, and sometimes drastic measures are necessary to fix it (more than that I won’t say, lest it be a spoiler).

The narrator is superb, capturing Ruby Clyde’s voice perfectly. As I listened I could see the whole thing, the result of a lovely combination of good writing and good reading.

My Recommendation:

I’d save this one for somewhat older kids, who are ready for the idea that “the system” is broken. Be prepared to discuss the ending with your young reader. I’ll say 10-12 years old for this, though aside from the difficult issues, the writing is quite accessible without talking down to the reader at all.

Full Disclosure: I borrowed an electronic copy of Almost Paradise from my library, and received nothing from the author or the publisher in exchange for my honest review. The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."   

Photo Friday: Rees-Dart Track Part II

My husband and I and our 21-year-old son are spending several months traveling and tramping in New Zealand. We arrived on the South Island Dec. 28, 2018, and spent January hiking like crazy with Dave’s brother and his wife, before sending them home and settling into a home base in Christchurch, allowing me a bit more time between adventures to get some blogging and writing done! I’m posting photo reports on our major tramping trips. This is the second half of the Rees-Dart loop. For the first part, go here.

Rees-Dart Track, Days 3-5

We left you last week with a late-afternoon arrival at the Dart Hut. It is a fairly new and comfortable hut, which was nice, because we were to spend two nights there (as most trampers do). The purpose: an all-day side-trip to Cascade Saddle, with views of the Dart Glacier, and over the mountain range to Mt. Aspiring and surrounding peaks.

Knowing the hike would be long and hard, the senior members of our party got up at an ungodly hour in order to start hiking as soon as it was light (this being less than a month past mid-summer, light came very early indeed). Eldest Son decided to sleep an extra hour, fix his own breakfast, and catch up later.

Walking up the Dart River as the sun touches the high peaks.

My sister-in-law turned back when she’d gotten a good view and the track had deteriorated. The other three of us pushed on, the stunning views compensating for stretches of boulder fields or loose scree (glacial moraines).

My husband and his brother crossing one of the very few flat stretches of trail.

After a couple of hours walking up the valley, we approached the glacier, and saw the headwall we had to climb.

The saddle is just beyond the dip in the upper right of the photo. 

Even before we reached this point, Eldest Son caught up and zipped past us, having started two hours after we did.

Happily, there were lots of good excuses to stop as we climbed, with the views improving with every step.

The best views of the Dart Glacier were from below the summit, another excuse to stop.

The Dart Glacier. The lower part is covered in dirt.

After an eternity of climbing we can see the summit. How do we know it’s the top? Because Eldest Son is up there reading, of course!

Mt. Aspiring is leaning into the photo on the far left.

Of course, the hike down was just as long as the hike up, and the extremely steep descent wasn’t much fun! But we made it back in time for dinner, which is all that mattered.

Dart Glacier and alpine daisies

This is getting very long, but stick with me—Cascade Saddle was the high point of the trip, figuratively as well as literally. Our fourth day was overcast, and the hike down the valley felt a little dull by comparison with the previous day.

Dull is a matter of perspective. Still plenty of scenery!

We were glad the overcast wasn’t producing rain. Heavy rains could change little creek crossings into impassible barriers.

My crossing was less agile, but I don’t think I fell in that one.

The final hut was much less nice than the others, but the view from the windows was still fantastic.

The final day included a fun climb to bypass the lake formed in 2014 when a huge landslide blocked the river. Ghost trees in the lake slowed our photographers.

The lake is doomed to a short life—it is filling rapidly with glacial sediment, and the river is cutting through the damming slide to create a drain.

   The hike went on longer than we wanted, but we knew the end was approaching as the valey opened up and we got new views of new peaks.

Dart River

 One final meadow, a turn of the river, and we found the car park! Plenty of time for a bath in the river (yes, in that glacial run-off!) before the last members of the party made it out.

To our relief, there had been no rain, and the half-dozen or more creeks we had to cross to retrieve both cars and return to the pavement hadn’t risen. We didn’t need our emergency food, but enjoyed the snacks we’d left ourselves. 

And what hiking trip would be complete without the feast on returning to town?

 ©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2018 As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated.

Writer’s Wednesday

My big news for this week is that I really will have a draft of Death By Library ready for beta-readers  within the next few days. I have two readers lined up (I hope you remember who you are!) but would love to have some more. Please contact me or leave a comment if you would like to read a draft form of the 4th book in the Pismawallops PTA mystery series. I will warn that this is definitely a working read; there is quite a bit of work to be done yet. I am sending it out sooner than I might ordinarily do largely because I’ll be on the road for the next two months, so unable to do much on it myself.

If I were really organized, I’d have a blurb ready to entice you to want to beta-read. I’ve been too busy trying to get the draft done, though, so I’ll just have to say...

JJ has a new job at the library, where things turn deadly when a local news gadfly goes a bit too far...

Of course, her personal life is as chaotic as ever, as she prepares for Thanksgiving with her mother in her way, and an unexpected visitor complicating matters, all of which leaves her far too little time to spend with Ron Karlson!


Work has begun on the cover, as well, and I’m excited about the possibilties there. Danielle English promises to make another perfect cover!

In other news, we are down to our last few days in Christchurch, NZ. We hit the road again April 1, and won’t really stop moving until... June? So I’m not expecting a lot to happen with my

writing in that time, though I’ll take a shot at some short stories.

The blog will also go back to occasional and random postings, once I run out of the reviews, photos, and comments and getting queued up now!

So be sure to sign up for email notifications of new posts, so you won’t miss any pictures of cool places or news about the new book!