May I thank God for the meal? Marty asked

Is this my last lesson already? I was just getting to know you guys! I hope you enjoyed this new perspective of writing with “kid appeal,” and as I’m trying to pimp the class to teach at conferences, any endorsement you want to send my way would be much appreciated.

You guys all have different strengths and perspective, which was great fun to experience. Keep writing. Keep following your dreams. Keep overcoming obstacles. And you might end up like this first author in my examples below:

#1. Replication by Jill Williamson. I met her at my very first conference before she’d ever published a book. Now she’s winning another award every time I turn around. She’s also one of my favorite people in the world, so I know it’s well-deserved. Though I don’t read all her books because she writes outside my genre, there is one scene that stands out to me from her “clone” book.

It’s a repeating moment where the clone prays to God in a very unique way because he knows he was created as a clone with a specific purpose, so when he’s told that God is the creator of all, he believes this based on his own creation. So touching. So fresh. So memorable. Here it is.

“May I thank God for the meal?” Marty asked.

Abby turned to him, startled. “Oh. Of course.”

Marty bowed his head over the steaming pepperoni and green pepper pizza. “Hello to you, Creator of Everything. Thank you for this pizza, and for keeping us safe at the high school facility, and for Abby’s kiss. Please tell me your purpose for my life so I can follow it. Thank you for listening."

Abby smiled. She considered telling him about saying amen after a prayer, but she didn’t want to make him feel like he’d done it wrong. And she supposed he hadn’t—the intent was the same.

These next two excerpts come from the local librarian. I asked her to pick out the books that had the most memorable moments for her. It’s so interesting to me how different things can stand out to each of us. So here’s what she picked.

#2. Ender’s Game. Have you seen the movie? The unexpected ending? Where we realize that the humans have been hiding their wounds with evil rather than finding healing through self-sacrifice. Hard to forget, huh?

“Thank you, thank you, Ender. Thank God for you, Ender.”

The others soon came, too, shaking his hand, congratulating him. He tried to make sense of this. Had he passed the test after all? It was his victory, not theirs, and a hollow one at that; a cheat. Why did they act as if he had won with honor?

The crowd parted and Mazer Rackham walked through. He came straight to Ender and held out his hand.

“You made the hard choice, boy. All or nothing. End them or end us. But heaven knows there was no other way you could have done it. Congratulations. You beat them, and it’s all over.”

All over. Beat them. Ender didn’t understand. “I beat you.”

Mazer laughed, a loud laugh that filled the room. “Ender, you never played me. You never played a game since I became your enemy.”

Ender didn’t get the joke. He had played a great many games, at a terrible cost to himself. He began to get angry.

Mazer reached out and touched his shoulder. Ender shrugged him off. Mazer then grew serious and said, “Ender, for the past few months you have been the battle commander of our fleets. This was the Third Invasion. There were no games, the battles were real, and the only enemy you fought was the buggers. You won every battle, and today you finally fought them at their home world, where the queen was, all the queens from all their colonies, they all were there and you destroyed them completely. They’ll never attack us again. You did it. You.”

#3 On the Banks of Plumb Creek. Classic. We all know Laura was a memorable child. Here’s an example of the kind of repeated behavior that makes her so memorable.

Poor little Carrie’s skin was red with heat rash. Laura and Mary were sweltering inside their underwaists and drawers, and petticoat-waists and petticoats, and long-sleeved, high-necked dresses with tight waistbands around their middles. The backs of their necks were smothering under their braids.

Carrie wanted a drink, but she pushed the cup away and made a face and said, “Nasty!”

“You better drink it,” Mary told her. “I want a cold drink too, but there isn’t any.”

“I wish I had a drink of well water,” said Laura.

“I wish I had an icicle,” said Mary.

Then Laura said, “I wish I was an Indian and didn’t have to wear clothes.”

“Laura!” said Ma. “And on a Sunday!”

 

Which is the most memorable to you? And what books from your childhood (or more recently) stand out in your memory?

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Angela Ruth Strong

www.angelaruthstrong.blogspot.com