I'm today's stop on the bloggy train for Deborah Heal's YA book, Unclaimed Legacy. There is a guest post from the lovely author herself following my review.
"I call it time-surfing," Abby said. "It's like being there,
except no one can see or hear us."
"Whatever you call it," John said, "that was crazy--what we just did.
Beyond realistic. I mean, I was in that guy's head
and knew everything he was thinking."
Abby's
weird computer program is working again. And it comes in handy when
they agree to help the Old Dears next door with their family tree.
Except Abby and John learn more about one of the ladies' ancestors than
they ever wanted to know. Convicted in 1871 of murder and arson, Reuben
Buchanan is a blight on the family's reputation. But was he really
guilty? Abby and John get inside the mind of a murderer to find out.
But while they're rummaging around in the Old Dears' family history,
they discover the truth of God's promise to bless a thousand
generations... and a legacy waiting to be reclaimed.
My review:
Merrideth (Merri) and Abby have come across a remarkable computer
program that was installed on Merrideth's computer. So now they can make a simulated trip back into time to see how life was for the people
who lived there. The story centers around the fact that they can't get the program to work in the Miles Station home. Could there be a virus?
This book is beautifully written and extraordinarily fun and exciting to read. Deborah plops us right into the story with her vivid descriptions and strong characterizations. I fell in love with all of the characters and felt as though I knew Merrideth and Abby personally. John is utterly awesome and I wholeheartedly recommend you read both of these super fantastic stories.
Now for the guest post:
I’m grateful for the crew of volunteers who worked so hard to
preserve a bit of local history with the careful restoration of Sand Bank
School in Columbia, Illinois. Built during the 1850s, it stands on the site of
an even earlier school, a log cabin built in 1801 to serve the original
seventeen families pioneering in the area. Perched on a hill overlooking the
Mississippi Valley, the one-room schoolhouse looks like the sort of place (to
me anyway) that might be a portal for time travel. Every time I visit a
historical site, I start imagining the people who lived and died there, wishing
I could go back to just see what it was like. (Maybe if I went back to the
school when the sun was down and all the visitors were gone…?)
I’ve always loved thinking about the “olden days.” I thought
about them a lot, growing up in the tiny once-upon-a-time village of Woodburn,
Illinois. How could I not, living in a house with the date 1874 carved into its
soft red brick?
My siblings and I acted as amateur historians when we collected
arrow heads Native Americans had left
behind for our chickens to scratch up centuries later. We explored the old,
nearly forgotten roads. On one, we found a barn where an old stagecoach was
being kept out of the rain. (Sorry for trespassing, Mr. Stevens. We couldn’t
help it.) And we listened to the stories about how the Woodburn had once
bustled back in the day with its stagecoach inn, blacksmith shop, stores, mill,
and brick factory.
We heard how the stages used to pass through on their way from
Springfield down to Alton and how Abraham Lincoln sometimes stayed at the inn.
I heard the stories and read the scant entries in the Macoupin County History
Book and I wished that I, like our chickens, could scratch up more clues to the
past. I wished men and women had written more about their lives. I wished I
could see for myself. I wished Mr. Peabody would loan me his WABAC Machine.
I never found the way back. But the beauty of fiction is that my
characters can. In Time
and Again, I allow Abby and Merrideth to see it all exactly the way it
really was when a girl named Charlotte lived in their old house as part of a
bustling village. And while Abraham Lincoln didn’t spend the night there, he
did sit down to a nice meal Charlotte cooked. I always thought it would be cool
to go back to see if I resembled my great, great, great grandparents. Alas, I
don’t know the way. But, in Unclaimed
Legacy, I let Abby and John go back to uncover heroes in their
friends’ family tree.
I’m not sure where I’ll let them go next. But I’ll have fun
thinking it up. I can’t go back myself, but that’s all right, for now.
Thank you Deborah. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed meeting you and reading these wonderful stories.
Bio
Deborah Heal is
the author of the young adult novel Time
and Again. She lives in Waterloo, Illinois, where she enjoys reading, gardening, and learning about southern Illinois history. She is
married and has three grown children, three grandchildren, and a canine buddy
named Scout (a.k.a. Dr. Bob). Currently, she is working on book three in the Time and Again trilogy.
CLICK
TO LEARN MORE:
About the Author
Where to buy the books
(Psst. There's a giveaway, peeps!)
Win a copy of Time
and Again, the first book in the trilogy. Leave a comment telling me why you want to win a copy of this exceptional story. For additional
chances to win, see Deborah Heal’s official website and LIKE her Facebook
Fan Page.
Excerpt (from
Time and Again)
“No…There’s no way that would work. I mean no
one could invent a software program that could do that. No way.”
“What are you talking about?” Merrideth said,
staring at her.
Abby didn’t answer, but taking the mouse from
Merrideth, she placed the cursor on the View
icon on the menu bar and clicked. “This is so similar to my brother’s
architecture program,” she began, “that maybe we’ll be able to …”
When she clicked on Flip, both girls simultaneously gasped. “…do this,” Abby said with
satisfaction.
The screen view had rotated on its vertical
axis and now they were seeing the back side of Colonel Miles’ house. White
sheets on a clothesline snapped in the wind. A young woman in a long blue dress
and bonnet was stooping to pull a wet sheet from the wicker basket at her feet.
A gray cat came out of the barn and, stepping delicately through the wet grass,
cautiously bypassed the flapping sheets to lay in the sun on the back step.
After a moment of stunned silence, Merrideth
said, “It’s her! It’s Charlotte.”
Excerpt (from
Unclaimed Legacy)
Merri leaned
forward and studied the monitor and then, laughing, said, “It’s them.”
Frowning, John
looked closely at the monitor. “That’s crazy. This is just a computer program.
It can’t be them.”
“See the
resemblance? Just project forward fifty to sixty years,” Abby said. “That’s
definitely Beulah and Eulah.”
“Boo and Yoo,”
Merri said. “Get it?”+
“That’s insane!
No one could make a program that could—”
“We don’t know
what this is or where it came from. All I know is that it’s awesome,” Abby
said. “And we really are seeing Beulah and Eulah back in the forties—you got
the bit about food rationing, didn’t you? And if you think that’s wild, just
wait until you see what happens when we lock onto one of them and go virtual
mode.”
“Virtual mode? Show me.”
Abby smiled smugly and turned back to the
controls. “Okay, John. Hold onto to your hat.”
First, there was a confusing blur of color and
whirring sounds and then…
Here's the rest of the tour y'all: (Forgive the formatting)
Don't forget to comment for a chance to win.
