A new kind of cute encounter is explored in Chandler Baker and Wesley King’s Hello (From Here) offering.
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It should come as no surprise that the global pandemic is making its way into children’s literature. This column has already featured an illustrated book with such content (Keeping the City Going, by Brian Floca, revised April 24) and a novel for middle grades (Sunny Days Inside by Caroline Adderson, revised August 28). Today, the focus is on a junior novel, completing the categories.
Hello (from here)
Chandler Baker and Wesley King
Mark books
12 years and older
Hello (From Here), a boy meets girl story, departs from the usual plot by being set in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when such gatherings are rare and the chances of building a close relationship are still more rare. Jonah and Max (short for Maxine) meet at a grocery store, where Jonah, a nerdy and distraught, accuses Max of storing toilet paper and tries to convince her to share some of his treasure.
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Max, however, is a personal shopper, a 17-year-old essential worker who challenges the outside world to buy from people who dare not risk contracting the virus. She negotiates a trade for some of the items in Jonah’s shopping cart, but taunts him by giving up a single TP role. Written with a light touch and deft humor, the opening chapter elevates cute storytelling to a whole new level.
In fact, the whole book belongs to a category of its own. Not only is the story set in a pandemic, but as the book progresses, it soon appears that COVID is just one of several issues that the book’s characters struggle with.
A publisher’s warning to that effect appears on the ISBN page. I hope it doesn’t scare many readers because, in the end, this is a hymn to the joy of friendship between characters who vary in age, race, and economic status. In addition, the book brings together two authors who have not yet met in person but who, together, created a very readable story.
Chandler Baker, a mother of two living in Texas, and Wesley King, born in Ontario but recently moved to Newfoundland from Nova Scotia, were reunited, so to speak, by their agents.
“It’s not easy embarking on a book with a friend, much less a complete stranger, but it was really a pleasure working with Chandler,” King told me in a recent email exchange. Baker handled the opening chapter and all subsequent chapters of Max, alternating with the Jonah chapters written by King.
“The book was written almost in an exchange of letters,” he said. “One of us would write a chapter, submit it, and then expect a chapter back in a day or two.”
They “freely edited” each other’s chapters as they read them, but were careful to preserve their distinctive and individual voices. The result is a wonderful, cohesive tale of two unlikely characters coming together at a time when most people are kept apart.
– Bernie Goedhart
Reference-o.canada.com