04 July 2004 RED KAYAK by Priscilla Cummings, Penguin Group/Dutton Children's Books, September 2004, Ages 10-14, ISBN: 0-525-47317-3

"Each must make his life as flowing in

tumbling block or a stepping stone

while common people like you and me

we'll be builders for eternity

each is given a bag of tools

a shapeless mass and the book of rules"

-- Llewellyn/Morgan/Sibbles, "Book of Rules"

"From where we stood, you could see down the grassy slope behind our house, on past Dad's shop and the dock, to the creek. And out there, heading our way, was Mr. DiAngelo's new red kayak."

Brady Parks is a hardworking thirteen-year-old son of a Chesapeake Bay waterman. He and his two longtime friends, Digger and J.T., are waiting for their ride to school one April morning when they see that red kayak go by in the distance.

"Cupping his hands around his mouth, Digger pretended to call out: 'Paddle hard, you sucker!'

"He and J.T. exchanged this look I didn't quite catch, and J.T. started laughing, too.

"But I shook my head. 'He shouldn't be going out there today. When he gets down to the point--he'll fly down the river.' I was sure Mr. DiAngelo didn't know about how the wind picked up once you left our creek and hit the open water. Not to mention the spring tides. Sometimes they were so strong they'd suck the crab pot buoys under. I doubted whether Mr. DiAngelo knew that; he'd only had the kayak a few weeks.

" 'Really, guys. We ought to yell something,' I said soberly."

Although he's quite fond of the man's wife and little boy, Ben, for whom he's baby-sat, Brady and his friends are not fans of Mr. Marcellus DiAngelo, who has bought Digger's grandfather's farm, replaced the old farmhouse with a mansion, and eliminated the boys' access to the surrounding lands where they've always been able to play, and which Digger had always used as a getaway from his abusive dad.

"Sneering, Digger stuffed his hands in his pockets. 'Look Brady, if he's stupid enough to be out there today, he can take what's coming. Besides, he deserves it.' "

So they don't call out a warning.

And then later that morning, when his father comes to take him out of school to assist with search efforts, Brady learns that it was actually Mrs. DiAngelo, taking Ben out for a ride, who had been paddling the red kayak in those frigid waters. Thus begins Brady's moral journey through this action-filled page turner.

Brady's rescue and resuscitation of Ben makes Brady a hero for a day--until Ben dies from the effects of his exposure. Brady's friends distance themselves from him, and he is left alone with the secrets of the trio's actions and inactions.

"My mind sure was drifting. Looking back, I could see there were things we three did that I would never forget. Boy, like the day we were playing ice hockey and I went through the ice on that cow pond. It was Digger who saved my life. I can still see him sprawled toward me, his chin bleeding, his tooth chipped forever, reaching both of his bare, cold hands out to me while I thrashed around in that freezing water and couldn't get a grip because the edges of the ice kept breaking. 'Grab on, Brady! Grab on!' And J.T. in the background, holding Digger's ankles so he wouldn't go down with me."

The long-term process that Brady navigates in his attempts at discovering "the right thing to do" is paralleled by that of Brady's dad. Mr. Parks is seeking a solution to his own problems involving decreasing income due to the dwindling inventories of crabs in the Chesapeake fishery. Dad must decide whether or not to participate in the political actions being organized by his fellow watermen who are calling for less restrictions on their crab harvesting.

"Pressure pushing down on me

Pressing down on you no man ask for

Under pressure that brings a building down

Splits a family in two

Puts people on streets"

--David Bowie/Queen, "Under Pressure"

Another parallel involves the loss by Brady's family--prior to the story--of his little sister Amanda from SIDS. Brady's previous experience makes him quite cognizant of the effect Ben's loss must be having upon Mr. and Mrs. DiAngelo. The pressure within Brady builds as his complicated feelings about guilt and friends and family consume his days and compel him to seek a way out of the dilemma.

"I thought I'd wake up feeling relieved the next morning. Like a weight had been taken off my shoulders because of the action I'd finally taken. But it didn't start out that way, and I wondered while I poked at the scrambled eggs Mom had made whether it was something I just had to get used to first, like a new haircut."

RED KAYAK provides a winning balance between the outdoor action and settings, and Brady's inner turmoil. From the muck on the crab traps to Brady's yellow lab tearing through the tall grass to retrieve a ball, the descriptions brought me gladly back to locales I've previously explored with the likes of Dicey Tillerman and Tunes Smith. Readers will surely be caught up in Brady's story of life and death on the river, as he finds himself trapped between a rock and a hard place, while killer currents and dangerous obstacles just under the surface threaten to take him under.

Richie Partington

http://richiespicks.com

BudNotBuddy@aol.com