Genre:
Fantasy/Adventure/Humor/Young Adult
Description:
Evelyn
Hatfield sets out to be the first to reach the mythological land of
Methania. But before her epic journey can begin, she must first
suffer high school jealousies, the apathy of conformity, and a pair
of clueless parents--all while learning to sail.
Through
chance, and a few innocent manipulations and half-truths, Evelyn
finally sets sail for the distant horizon where she and her stowaway
monkey, Bobo, do battle with their most fearsome enemy, the
weather... and lose. Shipwrecked on a tiny island, 4,000 miles from
home, she meets Fender Spigot, an equally shipwrecked explorer from
Methania who, having never heard a language other than his own,
gibber-jabbers his way into her heart.
Regardless
of their communication issues, they manage to help each other escape
the island and head home--Evelyn, sailing east, and Fender, west.
They soon discover, however, that absence makes the heart grow
fonder. But how can they, again, find each other with a monstrous
ocean and a thousand misunderstandings between them?
Author:
From Rodney
Jones’ Author page on Amazon: While a past resident of Michigan,
Ohio, Illinois, Florida, New York, and Vermont, Rodney now resides in
Indiana, where he whiles away his days writing, walking, talking,
yakking, packing, and wilderness camping with whoever will accompany
him.
His list of
past occupations reads like his list of past residences, though his
life-long ambition was to be an artist, until he discovered a latent
affinity for writing… Rodney’s interests include: art, science,
whiskey and chocolate, music, gardening, and travel.
Appraisal:
Evelyn
Dear Fender is a unique story
set in a fantasy world that is similar to our own. The characters are
well developed, realistic, and myopic. Except for Evelyn and Fender,
who both had the heart of adventurers. They both believed there was
more to the world than their own small section of it. There were
myths and stories around, which others disregarded as mere folktales of other lands. Evelyn and Fender both set out from opposite sides of
the world to prove these other lands actually existed.
The first
third of the story we meet Evelyn; we learn about her growing
up, get a sense of her adventurous spirit, and her desire to explore.
She knows exactly how to manipulate her parents to get what she
wants. Evelyn is smart, head strong, courageous, and a little naïve.
You can’t help but love her spirit.
When
Evelyn’s dream of owning a sailboat becomes a reality, she makes plans to set sail to discover the mythical land of Methania. She
smartly packs provisions for her long trip on her boat, which she
named Fido because dogs are loyal, never get lost, and always come
home. Things all go more or less as planned until there is a huge
storm where Fido and Evelyn become shipwrecked on a small uninhabited
island. It just so happens on the other side of the world Fender set
sail in his sailboat, Pencil, to find the mythical land known to him
as Barnyard and gets hit by the same storm to become shipwrecked on
the same island.
This is a
wonderfully adventurous but challenging tale, which is told from both
Evelyn’s and Fender’s points of view. This helped, as there is an
interesting language barrier between the two. They mainly
communicated through pictographs because each language sounded like
gibberish to the other. Mostly because both languages used the same
words, but the words had different meanings. I kept trying to find
rhyme or reason to the words but never managed it. I found it easier
to take it all in at face value and move on. There are a few twists
in the story that make it heartwarming, then more twists that could
have all been disastrous if it wasn’t for a few compassionate
people.
My only
complaint, besides the challenging language thing, was that I felt
like Mr. Jones missed the boat concerning Evelyn’s illness towards
the end of the story. I was sure he was headed in a certain
direction, which included more than the logistical difficulties of
the journey. So, I was a bit let down and the story lost a star. I
can’t say more without adding spoilers. The story comes to a
satisfying, heart-warming ending that could have been even more joyous
if it had taken a fantastical leap.
Format/Typo
Issues:
I found a
small number of proofing errors.
Rating:
*** Three Stars
Reviewed
by: ?wazithinkin
Approximate
word count: 85-90,000 words
