You know what the trouble is with stunning books like Kate Messner’s The Trouble With Heroes that dropped yesterday?
It makes people like me stay up past my bedtime to finish it.
It’s been a few years since I decided to forgo sleep on a school night so that I could finish a book, but I do remember those books that compelled me to do so in years past: The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner, The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee, Murder Among Friends by Candace Fleming.
But back to Kate Messner’s mesmerizing middle grade with a little story about the full-circle moment of completing it ahead of the New York State Library Association’s School Librarians Conference happening in Rochester this week. Because last year at about this time, the conference was in Lake Placid and Kate Messner was the keynote closing lunchtime speaker on Saturday. Regaling the audience with stories about her curious discoveries that become series like the History Smashers, she talked about the project she launched with a stellar cast of authors– a series of chapters books called The Kids in Mrs. Z.’s class, and she shared mockups of the cover of the yet-to-be-released The Trouble with Heroes; she asked the librarians which cover we liked best. When I saw the advanced copy available on Netgalley, I quickly requested it, but I know myself. I know that when I’m really excited about a book, I (oppositely) avoid it as long as possible because then when it’s read, I can’t go back and read it for the first time. Ever. Again.
This is the case with The Trouble with Heroes. I had read a few pages about a week ago. I had already made notes to myself and highlighted moving quotes. And I told myself. I have to prolong it until I realized the publication date was April 29th and it has had so much buzz that I thought, I’m going to dive in. And that’s just what I did. How easy was it to get lost in Finn’s story– a seventh grader who makes a bad decision, but instead of a strict punishment, the adults around him know that he needs nature healing after the death of his father– a man who was forever memorialized as a hero on September 11th saving a woman. A man who was haunted by the demons of that day. Who then was a paramedic in the city for years including the recent pandemic. What a tough time to be in healthcare. Yet he always had the Adirondacks.
Astute readers know that Messner herself is a 46er, a person who has summited all 46 High Peaks of the Adirondack Mountains. It would be assumed, she wanted to write a bit of a love letter to this journey that’s physical as well as spiritual for many who set that goal.
Now Finn will be hiking them, many of them with a drooling, hairy sidekick, Seymour the dog pictured on the cover, and a cast of mentors who summit with him. I can wax poetic about the storytelling, the humor, the character development, the setting, the message but I will not because I will tell you: read it yourself. Everyone deserves an experience like reading Messner’s stunning story, both kid and adult. I will however share a favorite page of verse (from the advanced copy) that’s another “trouble” with The Trouble with Heroes— and that’s that it’s too poetic for its own good:
Too Much Time to Think
The trouble with long hikes
is that your brain has to come with you
and on the way back when you’re trudging
the last muddy miles,
it has plenty of time to think about stuff
like metaphors.
That May after Mom and I moved back,
she and Gram had figured out
how to handle pickup orders from the shop.
I was making deliveries on my bike
and riding around in the sunshine was pretty okay.
I’d just gotten home when the phone rang.
You know the call I’m talking about.
I’m not going through it again.
Except to say it felt like that spot
in the brook where the rocks fell away.
Like I was falling
and falling,
heart sinking, stomach twisting
never saw it coming.
I should have.
But I didn’t.
Later today I’ll be stopping by my local indie bookstore to purchase two copies. One to keep and one to give to a kid I know should read it. I’ll also be adding several copies to the shelves of the school library I work at. Do yourself a favor. Support Messner by doing the same. Your kids will be better for it. And we want Messner to keep writing.
Readers Be Advised 