Summertime of Instagram-sponsored posts is a season when we lift our eyes to a bright blue sky. Watch wispy clouds float by. Rest in the shade. Sit under a colorful beach umbrella. Find calm napping in a hammock. Feel a soft breeze. Water our garden’s colorful blossoms. Refresh one’s soul for the season ahead.
But what about a summertime trapped within a blustery storm at a high elevation? Can’t see one’s way ahead. A lost friend. A lost trail. A battle around every bend. Mysterious and difficult realities that can’t be explained away. No sure answers. And muddled missions. Dangers slithering, unseen, to snatch all safety from us.
The latter is summertime in The Tukor’s Journey. Choosing one’s mission ahead does not always bring a softened space where dreams float by like soothing clouds such that we can reach for them, grab them, and claim them for our own. Instead the dream becomes the mission. And it’s hard fought. And the gains are difficult to measure. And the stakes are high.
The stakes are very high in The Tukor’s Journey. The Grezniks seek to blow up Earth. Shatter it into small pieces. Grezniks hate Life itself. They hate being trapped on Earth. And they want to escape our planet by launching themselves back into the galaxy. They will use Earth’s explosion to power their escape. And three kids are invited into the battle to stop them.
Unlike many other books, there are no warring clans that one is born into. There is no lineage to becoming a Tukor. It’s a choice. Nor are there potions and wands and spells that give an easy way out. Those who choose to fight the Grezniks, have chosen to enter a battle that is sacrificial that requires one’s own skill, character, determination, stamina, endurance, and spirit.
I enjoy talking with kids about how we do author the ending of our stories, our days, our adventure. Although we can’t pick what drops on us randomly from the sky, we do choose our trail. We write our journey. We author our choices. The greatest thing to give a child is an understanding that no matter who they are, their circumstances, their skills, they have a powerful purpose and a unique mission.
I invite you to read The Tukor’s Journey and let me know what you think.
The Tukor’s Journey is available for purchase at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Your local library can get a copy for you too!