Association Of Catholic Bloggers

Waiting with Elmer , by Deanna Klingel is excellent book for the young adult in your life who needs to learn patience. Learning to wait for God’s timing can be an impossible task for anyone, but especially for a child. Meet Willy Skyes, left at a train station, by his father, to fend for himself. As Willy sits on a bench, waiting for the father who will never return, he meets Elmer, who seems to run the town of Waitnsee. Elmer introduces Willy to all the town’s residents, especially Rake, who runs the Union Street Mission. Willy and his dad were always running from town to town because of the misdeeds of Willy’s dad. Now Willy was alone, but not for long. The men of the Union Street Mission take Willy under their wings, and Elmer makes sure that Willy has what he needs; a place to sleep, food, new clothes, and an education. As the story progresses, we see Willy grow in virtue, especially patience, building bonds with the men of the Union Street Mission. He finds a “family” in t...

Rebecca & Heart is an enchanting story, by Deanna Klingel, the author of Spokes . In Rebecca & Heart , we meet a young orphan girl named Rebecca, who we quickly learn is autistic. Not only is she an orphan, but no one at the orphanage likes her, let alone respects her. Because of her autism, they consider her “odd.” Well, that is, unless we forget to mention the Fly on the Wall, who is the narrator of this story. Literally, the “Fly on the Wall” is a character in the story that tells the tale from beginning to end. He considers himself to be Rebecca’s best friend, even though Rebecca does not know that he exists! Klingel’s use of a fly to tell the story is pure genius! Anyone familiar with autism knows that many autistic children are non-verbal. Having an autistic protagonist of the story, makes the concept of dialogue quite challenging. Klingel easily gets around that obstacle by having the Fly on the Wall tell us what is happening throughout the story; thus creating...