Stephen Parolini

When the ringing school bell signals an air raid drill at Hill Elementary, Thomas Lingonberry is the only student who follows protocol, climbing under his desk and curling into a ball to protect himself from the Red Menace. Everyone else races outside thinking it’s a fire drill. This wouldn’t have mattered but for the fact that a Martin B-26 Marauder carrying two improperly-attached bombs was passing overhead at the very same time. Duck is a novelette that recalls pivotal moments in Thomas Lingonberry’s life, beginning with the events of April 16, 1957 - the day he earned the nickname “Bomb Boy.” It's a coming-of-age story about those things that are out of our control - like bombs, bullies, and love.

“A cool breeze blew up the hill from the forest, and with it, something like a song. Just the tease of a melody that curled around a single word, a question. Home?" Though her father tries to paint their sudden move to her aunt’s hill house as a grand adventure, Raspberry Lynette Granby knows the truth: with his cancer progressing and her mother long gone, he’s preparing his sister to become Berry’s caregiver. So she escapes, first into the familiar – books, and then into the unfamiliar – a storybook forest at the bottom of the hill. There she meets a mysterious girl who is something out of a fairytale herself – and not necessarily the happy-ending kind. Equally intrigued and frightened by the strange magic of the forest, Berry finds herself caught between wanting to forget, and hoping for a miracle.