Emory's Gift

While browsing the "new books" section at the library, this one, Emory's Gift, by W. Bruce Cameron, landed in my hand and refused to be put back on the shelf. I tried to ignore it at home, thinking I had other things to do, but it would not be ignored for long. I settled in last evening to see what it was about, and stayed up way too late. Can we say, "page turner?" I tried to be productive today, but was drawn back over and over into the pages of the story until it was finished. Sigh. It was a fun read!

The story is about Charlie Hall, a 13 year old boy living in Idaho in the early 1970's who has recently lost his mother. His Dad goes into deep depression, and Charlie starts Junior High School where his life becomes more miserable every day. Sounds so sad, I know, but I smiled and even laughed at the descriptions of what happens in Junior High. Oh, do I remember some of those feelings and observations!

Even though these threads are woven all through the book, the REAL excitement is when EMORY, a full grown grizzly bear shows up. He is apparently tame, so Charlie befriends him, and of course that stirs up all kinds of situations at home and with the small community he lives in. Not just the ones you immediately think of, either. There are some fascinating turn of events that left me astonished and eager to continue to find out just WHERE this story was going. I thoroughly enjoyed the romp.

You know me, so you know it's a good, clean story, and one that is easy to spend several hours with.  There's plenty of tension to move the plot along, and enough love to make it worthwhile. Try it, and tell me what you think.