Title: Bandy
Author: Craig R. Hipkins
Genre: YA
Book Blurb:
Bandy is a gut-wrenching tale of persecution and friendship in the early Civil War era as thirteen-year-old Isaac Barker travels to Virginia to bring a young, dying slave to freedom.
Excerpt:
For a short time, they sat in silence watching the flames lick up the wet smoky wood, each one caught in their own reveries. Finally, Joy broke the silence.
“Isaac?”
“Yeah?”
“What’s it like? I mean, how is it where you live? I have never left Virginia. This life is all I have ever known.”
He gazed at her, sitting, bent over, with her head resting on her knees. “Well, it’s a lot colder up there, but you wouldn’t know it from what we are feeling today. I am an orphan like you. Never really had any friends. Well, I…I do have one friend.”
She looked interested. “You do? A boy or a girl?”
He shrugged and the hint of a smile crossed his face. “Well, you won’t believe me if I told you.”
She sat up and shuffled closer to him. “Tell me…I want to know.”
He tilted his head back. “All right, but don’t laugh at me. You promise?”
She nodded, leaning forward with her chin resting on her hands.
Isaac cleared his throat. “Well, I have this place…I go there often. Been going there since I was little. It’s a lake—the water is always cold and clear. Sometimes it almost shines like God has polished it or something.”
He made a motion with his hand as if he had a cloth and was shining the air. He continued: “There is wildlife in abundance, Joy. I see deer, wild turkey, fox, turtles, and birds everywhere. I know all the trees, lots of maples and oaks, hemlocks, and white pine and even an old chestnut. Sometimes I climb up into its branches, almost to the top!”
She interrupted him. “Isn’t that dangerous?”
He shook his head. “Oh, no…you see, it might sound strange, but I never worry about falling because the tree seems to protect me. If I slip, a branch is there to grab me. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it has always been like that. This…this lake is sort of my own little sanctuary. Everything is peaceful. We are all friends. It is like…like my own little heaven.”
Joy became animated. “But your friend? Tell me about your friend?”
He smiled, a carefree look, his mind traveling back to the place. He then turned to her. “Bandy is his name. He is grey, with a pink belly and black spots with a colored band around his neck…He…he is a passenger pigeon,” he blurted out. “I know you won’t believe me. I never tell anyone. In fact, you are the first person I have ever told, though a few people have seen me talking to Bandy, but they just made fun of me. They think I am crazy.”
He made a swirly motion with his finger against his temple to emphasize the “crazy” part.
“You talk to Bandy? And he talks back to you?” she asked, almost in a whisper, her mind a whirlwind of conflicting emotions.
Isaac nodded and lowered his head, embarrassed. “I…I told you that you wouldn’t believe me.”
Joy leaned closer to him, her eyes watering with tears.
“Well, you…you are wrong, Isaac. I do believe you. I…I want to go to this lake. It seems like it is a magical place! Will…will you take me there?”
The boy’s face brightened. “You want me to take you there? Really?”
“Yes, unless you don’t want me to go. I would understand. After all, it is your own personal spot,” she said in a low voice, and then added, “I…I had my own spot, also.”
He adjusted his position and sat cross legged, folding his hands in front of him. “You do?”
“I did,” she replied. “But I will never see that place again.”
He was gazing at her with a look of attentiveness. “Tell me about your place. What’s it like?”
She folded her arms, and he could see a smirk forming on her face and then she burst out laughing.
“What? What’s so funny?”
She wagged her finger at him. “Now it’s your turn to promise me you won’t laugh.”
He threw his head back and chuckled.
“I promise I won’t laugh,” he said with a wide smile. “But I must say that it is quite hard not too when you are laughing.”
Joy gave him a playful tap on the arm. “That’s because laughter is contagious,” she said with a merry grin, showing her gleaming white teeth.
He scratched his ear and leaned forward. “Are you going to tell me or not?”
She nodded and suddenly became serious, almost meditative.
“Sometimes, I would go to this place…it was out in the pasture. I could still see the house, but it was far away. There is a spot where no grass grows. It…it is rather strange, a round spot about as big as the horse stable. Moses told me it was a faerie circle.”
Isaac was puzzled. “What’s a faerie circle?”
“Moses said that faeries are little elves or goblins and are associated with witches and the devil, but I don’t believe it. He warned me to stay away from the place, but I never saw bad things there…only good things.”
Isaac was mesmerized. “What kind of good things?”
“Well,” she continued. “When you told me about Bandy, I …I almost didn’t believe it. I thought that I was the only one—”
She broke off in mid-sentence as if she were reluctant to continue. But Isaac prodded her. “The only one that what?”
She leaned closer to him and responded in a voice so low she was almost whispering. “Isaac, I…I talk to the animals too."
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Bandy is the 2024 winner of the Readers’ Favorite Gold Medal for YA Action.
Giveaway –
Enter to win a $20 Amazon gift card:
Open Internationally.
Runs November 25 – December 3, 2024.
Winner will be drawn on December 4, 2024.
Author Biography:
Craig R. Hipkins grew up in Hubbardston Massachusetts. He is the author of medieval and YA fiction.
Social Media Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HipkinsTwins
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craighipkins3/