THE SPOKESMAN • TUESDAY, JUNE 14, 2022 A3
Best ‘coming of age’ middle grade novels
still on the journey of finding their
place and discovering their true self:
BY ERICKA
BRUNSON-
ROCHETTE
Community librarian
Middle grade
novels often in-
clude stories or les-
sons that speak to
Brunson-
how challenging it
Rochette
can be to find your
place in the world during a time of
significant change.
Coming of age stories are some of
my favorite, because while we all may
navigate adolescence and life differ-
ently, it’s a journey we all have to take.
Some of these stories can be inspiring
while others can be a little messy, but
there is no right or perfect path for
self-discovery.
These are some of my favorite re-
cently published coming of age mid-
dle grade novels, for anyone who is
”Northwind” by Gary Paulsen
In this last book written by this
beloved author, Paulsen crafts an-
other captivating story of wilder-
ness, adventure and survival. Set
centuries ago, a young waif named
Leif is forced to abandon his small
fishing camp when a deadly plague
starts taking the lives of all the elders
around him. And soon the youth, as
well.
Setting off on the sea in a small ca-
noe, Leif carries with him only a few
memories and an elder’s dying mes-
sage to never return. Having never
truly been on his own, Leif must
learn quickly how to not only sur-
vive on the sea, but to establish a new
life by way of water and hope. With a
unique and almost melodic writing
style, Northwind perfectly weaves to-
gether the story of a young person’s
journey to find harmony and place
in the midst of literal sea of grief, fear
and endless danger.
”Jennifer Chan is Not Alone” by
Tae Keller
Do you believe in aliens? Do you
believe that there is something else
out there, something that can’t be ex-
plained? Jennifer Chan does, and to
her neighbor and schoolmate Mal-
lory Moss, that is a problem.
Mallory always tries to follow the
rules of middle school, which thanks
to her best friend Rachel, she knows
means that who you are is deter-
mined by what everyone else thinks
of you. So when Jennifer Chan moved
to town and started to talk about
aliens, Mallory knew that wasn’t go-
ing to make a great impression.
But what Mallory didn’t know was
the lengths she would go to make
sure that everyone else’s perception of
her didn’t change, even if it was at the
expense of her new neighbor. Keller,
Newbery Medal winning author of
“When You Trap a Tiger,” delivers an-
other heartfelt and honest coming of
age story of an imperfect young girl
trying to find her place in the world,
and room in her heart for others and
for herself.
”Anybody Here Seen Frenchie?”
by Leslie Connor
Frenchie Livernois does not talk,
but for his best friend Aurora that is
not a problem. In fact, talkative and
expressive Aurora, who often has a
hard time controlling her outbursts,
seemingly talks enough for the both
of them. These friends have estab-
lished their own, unique way of com-
municating, and it has worked per-
fectly for the two of them since they
met in third grade.
At the start of the new school
year, Aurora and Frenchie are
placed in different classrooms, and
everything begins to change. Elev-
en-year-old Aurora is focused on
expanding her social circle and giv-
ing her attention to her new friends,
which means that she has less time
for Frenchie.
When Frenchie doesn’t show up
to his class one morning, Aurora
feels like it’s her fault since she can’t
remember walking him to class
like she does every morning. Told
through multiple perspectives and
intersecting storylines, this endear-
ing tale of friendship, neurodiver-
sity and growing-up, skillfully fits
together pieces of the puzzle of
what happened to Frenchie.
FLASHBACK
Alfalfa moonshiners busted during Prohibition
The Spokesman
100 YEARS AGO
June 15, 1922 — Big haul
made at Alfalfa of moonshin-
ers
Four stills confiscated, ap-
proximately 10 gallons of
moonshine seized, two arrests
made and more likely to fol-
low — these were the results
of a series of raids conducted
in the Alfalfa section Tuesday
afternoon by sheriff S.E. Rob-
erts, Deputy George Stokoe
and Special Officer L.A. W.
Nixon. All this is to say noth-
ing of barrels of mash, and
bottles and jugs by the gross
which were destroyed.
By the time officers arrived
at the second plant, near the
old Beebe ranch farther on in
the irrigated district, they fol-
lowed Vail Taylor and Frank
Lowell busily engaged and
moving the equipment.
Taylor and Lowell reached
their car with a load from
the plant to find sheriff Rob-
erts standing near the ma-
chine quietly watching them.
They admitted they had been
warned by telephone.
75 YEARS AGO
June 19, 1947 — Mayor El-
liot goes to hospital
Mayor Jack Elliot, suffering
a leg infection, is in St. Charles
hospital in Bend under the
care of Dr. Raymond F. Jones.
Although his condition is not
critical, he may be in the hos-
pital several weeks. He left
Archived Photo
Former Spokesman publisher Mary E. Brown accepts a Distinguished Service Award from Central Oregon Community College president
Frederick H. Boyle at the colleges Friday evening commencement.
Tuesday afternoon and under-
went an operation Wednesday
morning.
City affairs have been
turned over to Fred Rodecker,
president of the council, who
will be acting there in Elliot’s
absence.
50 YEARS AGO
June 14, 1972 — Sisters
names superintendent
Sisters — Dr. Homer N.
Kearns Jr. has been named su-
perintendent of Sisters school.
Kearns, 29, was associate
director of the Northwest
Community Education De-
velopment Center and assis-
tant professor of education,
department of curriculum
and instruction, U of O. He
was the speaker at a commu-
nity school presentation and
spaghetti dinner earlier this
year at the Sisters school.
Former positions include
principal of Pinedale Elemen-
tary School, Clovis, Calif.;
principal of Nelson Elemen-
tary School, Clovis, Calif.; lec-
turer in race relations in Flint,
Mich., jail programs; coordi-
nator and consultant, Migrant
Teachers Institution, Fresno
State College, Calif., and head
teacher, Dry Creek Elemen-
tary School, Clovis.
Also in the Kearns family
are his wife, Patricia, Mark, 8,
and Christopher, 3.
Golf, hunting and fishing
are favorite free-time activ-
ities.
25 YEARS AGO
June 18, 1997 — School
board cuts personal finance
requirement
The Redmond School
board eliminated personal
finance as a high school
graduation requirement
Monday, even though the
state reached an all-time
high in personal bankrupt-
cies in 1996.
Board members voted
unanimously to follow a
state decision to cut the
class from a list of required
courses. The high school site
council recommended Red-
mond follow the state’s lead,
mainly because of the re-
tirement of business teacher
Karen Wood.
“We’ve lost one-third of
our business department
and we are unable to replace
her,” high school principal
Dan Purple said.
If personal finance were
left in the curriculum, teach-
ers from other departments
would teach it, limiting the
choice of electives.
Board members were
leery of cutting a class they
believe teaches students im-
portant life skills, such as
balancing a checkbook and
filing tax returns.
“How do we replace the
learning those students
won’t get? “Asked board
member Ted Thonstad. “I
think there is some valuable
information offered in that
class.“
However, Oregon Schools
Superintendent Norma Pau-
lus said last week a failure to
teach math adequately was
how personal finance classes
got started.
“Personal finance has
been masquerading as
math,” she said. “If we get
rid of it we can use the re-
sources to teach math.“
LOCAL BRIEFING
members, at the Redmond
Redmond Kiwanis
of Commerce and
Vintner’s Tickets Available Chamber
Eqwine Wine Bar.
until July 1
The silent auction will be
Redmond Kiwanis Club is
bringing back its Vintner’s
Dinner after a two-year hia-
tus because of the pandemic.
The 16th annual event
will be on Friday, July 8,
again at Redmond Commu-
nity Church.
Deadline for purchasing
tickets is July 1. Attendance
is limited to 180.
The dinner is the service
club’s largest fundraising
event for its youth projects.
Every Child Central Oregon,
a partner with the state’s fos-
ter children’s program, will
be the major beneficiary this
year.
The 2019 dinner raised
about $18,000. Club presi-
dent Josh Werner has set a
goal of $25,000 for the 2022
dinner.
Kiwanis members are
seeking items for the oral
and silent auction
Canoe Ridge Winery of
Walla Walla will be the pre-
senting winery, and Bad-
ger’s Kitchen of Powell Butte
will prepare the five-course,
wine-paired meal.
Tickets are $95 for indi-
viduals and $1,000 for cor-
porate tables of eight. They
are available from Kiwanis
open to everyone as it will
go on-line this year follow-
ing the success of the Ki-
wanis’ R’Oktoberfest in Sep-
tember.
Event-only raffles will be
staged exclusively for attend-
ees. An oral auction will also
be offered.
In addition to funding
such youth projects as the
Redmond Learning and
Childcare Center and more
than $15,000 in scholar-
ships annually, Redmond
Kiwanis also renovated the
playground at Sam Johnson
Park with the city of Red-
mond, expending more than
$1 million.
Edward Jones Invest-
ments, Josh Werner and
Chris Richie are sponsoring
the event.
Cascades East Transit
resumes Saturday route
through Redmond
Starting June 18, Cascades
East Transit will resume Sat-
urday service for routes that
connect Warm Springs, Ma-
dras, Redmond, Prineville
and Bend.
CET will also relaunch its
popular Ride the River and
Lava Butte summer shuttles
starting June 18 through La-
bor Day, weather permitting.
“We are excited to part-
ner with CET and Tumalo
Creek Kayak and Canoe
again this summer to oper-
ate the Ride the River shut-
tle,” mentioned Julie Brown,
Bend Park and Recreation
District’s Communications
and Community Relations
Manager.
Ride the River shuttles
cost riders $4 for an all-
day wristband and the Lava
Butte shuttle charges $3 per
passenger for a round trip.
Fares are collected through
the UMO Pass Mobile App.
Cash payments are also
accepted; however, drivers
cannot provide change.
Schedule information for
Ride the River, Lava Butte,
and Saturday Community
Connector Routes 20, 22,
24, and 26 can be accessed
at www.CascadesEastTran-
sit.com.
Redmond DMV to close for
summer, due to lack of
employees
The Oregon DMV said it
is temporarily closing 10%
of its field offices for the
next three months because
it doesn’t have enough em-
ployees to keep them open.
The agency is grappling
with a staffing shortage,
OPB reports.
To ensure more predict-
able service, the DMV plans
to transfer workers to high-
er-demand locations, even
if that means shutting some
less frequented offices en-
tirely in the short term.
The six offices that will
close this summer are lo-
cated in Lebanon, Redmond,
Stayton, Sandy, Ashland and
Cave Junction.
Another 10 field offices
will have reduced hours: As-
toria, Canyonville, Down-
town Portland, Heppner,
Hermiston, Junction City,
Klamath Falls, Lake Os-
wego, Lincoln City and Mil-
ton-Freewater.
Windermere to collect
donations for food banks
Friday
In honor of Windermere’s
38th Annual Community
Service Day, local real es-
tate brokers from Redmond
continued their monthly
food drive to benefit the
Redmond Food Project and
St. Vincent De Paul Food
Bank.
On Friday, June 10,
Windermere brokers and
volunteers from the Red-
mond Food Project spent
the day filling a freight
trailer with recently col-
lected donations at Winder-
mere Central Oregon’s Red-
mond office, 821 SW 6th
St., from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
They achieve their goal to
have filled the trailer with
food by the end of the day.
Established in 1984,
Windermere’s Community
Service Day is a summer
tradition in which the com-
pany’s nearly 300 offices
across the Western United
States close their doors to
allow brokers, managers,
owners, and staff to devote
their workday to projects
that positively impact the
neighborhoods where they
live and work. The event
has been recognized nation-
ally as a model hands-on
volunteer program and has
been adopted by other real
estate companies and busi-
nesses around the country.
Redmond Walmart
upgrades, donates to
local nonprofits
Redmond residents will
soon get a look at the newly
remodeled Walmart Super-
center.
The store, at 300 NW
Oaktree Ln., held a commu-
nity celebration and ribbon
cutting where the Redmond
community heard from em-
ployees who have been with
the store since it opened in
2017.
In addition, Walmart
provided grants to local
community organizations.
The Redmond Police De-
partment received $4,500,
Central Oregon Autism
Movement received $2,000,
Terrebonne Assembly of
God received $1,000, while
Deschutes Veterans Services
and Redmond Family Bicy-
cle Park received $500.
The remodel includes ex-
panded parking for online
grocery pickup, new signage
and wider aisles for eas-
ier navigation, new service
counters for paint and auto-
motive departments, and a
new mural welcoming cus-
tomers to the store.
The upgrades also com-
plement the measures the
company has taken in its
U.S. stores to help protect as-
sociates and customers from
the ongoing COVID-19 pan-
demic.
“Redmond customers will
love our store updates as
we’ve made it easier, faster
and more enjoyable to find
the items they need,” store
manager Charles Edwards
said. “We can’t wait for cus-
tomers to see our updated
interior and expanded store
offerings.”