The Last Crystal

by Frances Schoonmaker

Overview

When they board the L.A. bound Santa Fe Chief in Kansas City, the Harrison kids have never heard of the Last Crystal or the magic surrounding it. Worried about their father, who has been injured in World War II, they dread a summer with their boring, old Uncle James. But before the train is half way to L.A., J.D., Mary Carol, Robert, and Grace have crossed paths with a Nazi spy and one of the four has been kidnapped. Then, without warning, they find themselves off the train, drawn into a quest for the Crystal. To get home again, they must cross two thousand miles of wilderness and find the Crystal, with nothing to guide them but their wits, each other, and an old map that only the youngest can read.

Winner of 2019 Agatha Award for Best Middle Grade/Young Adult Mystery

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781732788244
Publisher:	Auctus Publishers
Publication date:	12/23/2019
Pages:	422
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.86(d)
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

Editorial Reviews

If you love the time travel of A Wrinkle in Time, the historical context of Little House on the Prairie, the wizardry of Harry Potter, this series is for you. Laura Bergquist, Musical Director, New York, NY, Lifelong lover of books. When they board the L.A. bound Santa Fe Chief in Kansas City, the Harrison kids have never heard of the Last Crystal or the magic surrounding it. Worried about their father, who has been injured in World War II, they dread a summer with their boring, old Uncle James. But before the train is half way to L.A., J.D., Mary Carol, Robert, and Grace have crossed paths with a Nazi spy and one of the four has been kidnapped. Then, without warning, they find themselves off the train, drawn into a quest for the Crystal. To get home again, they must cross two thousand miles of wilderness and find the Crystal, with nothing to guide them but their wits, each other, and an old map that only the youngest can read. “The Last Crystal” is an intriguing mixture of time travel, magic, mysteries inside mysteries, historical fiction, adventure, survival skills, the spirit world --and good old-fashioned values!” Joyce Patterson Lackey, retired Education Specialist, Denver, Colorado

From the Publisher

2020-05-22
Past and present merge as four children embark on a deadly quest for an object of power.

In this final volume of a fantasy trilogy for middle schoolers, four siblings in the 1940s are catapulted into North America’s long-ago past for a danger-filled wilderness adventure. Their quest: locate the powerful “Last Crystal,” in hopes that its magic can heal their father, a wounded World War II Army Air Forces pilot. As in the first and second books, The Black Alabaster Box (2018) and The Red Abalone Shell (2018), historical elements, including racial and ethnic issues and how ancient Native peoples lived, are integral to the narrative. In 1944, the children board a train in Kansas City, bound for Los Angeles. The oldest Harrison sibling is responsible J.D.; the youngest is Grace, who sees things others don’t—and who is the third generation of girls named Grace to play a central role in the continuing plot. In between are Mary Carol, a magic believer, and observant skeptic Robert. Also on board: wicked Celeste, who needs a child to retrieve the Last Crystal to maintain her youth and beauty and who is delighted to discover Grace Harrison, whom she intends to bend to her will. (In the conflict between good and evil and in the part children play in it, there is an echo of C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.)Escaping Celeste, the kids leap off the train into grassland thousands of years in the past, and Schoonmaker’s riveting narrative deepens into a sobering tale of high-stakes survival. Over their monthslong ordeal, the children, following a mysterious map to the crystal, sustain injuries, suffer extreme thirst and hunger, learn to rely on one another, and discover their individual strengths. The immersive plot, created with both authentic realism and imagination-stirring mysticism, includes an encounter with a Grace hidden from Celeste long ago in an ancient Chumash village where she is the resident shaman. Old Shep, an ageless, enigmatic dog, returns; so do Uncle James and two immortals: good Mr. Nichols and evil Sandastros.

A gripping fantasy with relatable young characters meeting life-threatening challenges. (author bio)

Kirkus Reviews