Cloud of Witnesses

by Jane Hertenstein

Overview

Some glad morning, I’ll fly away.

Who cares if he’s “gifted.” Roland Tanner wants to escape his life.

He’s stuck in a broken-down trailer in the hills with his family, the sorriest characters he’s ever met.

At his new middle school, his classmates only see him as a hillbilly.

He has a secret crush on Patty, but so does his friend Hassan, the new kid from Iran.

But then comes the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979. And Roland’s father’s health takes a turn for the worse while he’s away in jail.

Will Roland accept the cloud of witnesses—the saints and sinners all around him—and realize that his future can be whatever he makes it?

Perfect for fans of Erin Entrada Kelly, Sharon Creech, Cynthia Rylant, and Firoozeh Dumas, Cloud of Witnesses is a poignant, humorous book about coming of age in the foothills of the Appalachians.

"Weaving fiction and historical events together, this book made me laugh and cry. The characters jump off the page. A great read for all middle school students.” — Marilee Amodt, M.S.Ed., long-time Middle School Curriculum Resource Teacher

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781732027626
Publisher:	Golden Alley Press
Publication date:	09/30/2018
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.53(d)
Age Range:	13 - 15 Years

About the Author

Jane Hertenstein is a prolific author of fiction and creative non-fiction for adults and children. She enjoys long-distance bike touring, waking up early to work, running along the lakefront, and working with the homeless on the streets of Chicago.

Her middle-grade fiction book, Cloud of Witnesses, is based on her experiences substitute teaching in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in southern Ohio.

About her writing: "It all started a long time ago. Trees and poems. During my early years I would climb a tree and write a poem about trees. In 4th grade I dabbled in fiction-until my teacher complained to my parents I was "wasting time" writing stories instead of doing my schoolwork. An early activist, as a teen I wrote letters to the local newspaper trying to block an interstate roadway to protect my favorite oak tree.

I always loved reading Newbery-award winners. Favorite books are the place-markers in my life. That time I read only mysteries or autobiographies of ingenious Americans (code for "men," very few were about women). The summer I read Dickens or Louisa May Alcott, Austen and the Brontës. Then . . . I stumbled upon The Outsiders.

The Outsiders switched on philosophical wondering and wandering. Next were Catcher in the Rye, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, the Old and New Testaments. Craving realism, I read Grapes of Wrath and The Great Gatsby. There was something out there that I wanted-not sure what, yet it wavered on the horizon like heat on hot pavement. I would write my way toward it."

Editorial Reviews

“Weaving fiction and historical events together, this book made me laugh and cry. The characters jump off the page. A great read for all middle school students.” — Marilee Amodt, M.S.Ed., long-time Middle School Curriculum Resource Teacher

From the Publisher