THE LONG ROAD HOME
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The Long Road Home
Sky is a regular little girl, except that she and her little sister, Ocean, are adopted. One day, Sky takes a different road to school, where she meets Old Man Rain. That meeting changes her life forever. Sky soon finds out that she might be from another planet and have powers she could never have imagined. When they finds out about their birth parents and a sacred duty, Sky and Ocean begin a journey full of intrigue and adventure.
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ALSO AVAILABLE IN SPANISH AND CHINESE!
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MEJOR VENDIDO
El Largo Camino a Casa
Sky es una niña normal, excepto que ella y su hermana pequeña, Ocean, son adoptadas. Un día, Sky toma un camino diferente a la escuela, donde conoce a Old Man Rain. Ese encuentro cambia su vida para siempre. Sky pronto descubre que podría ser de otro planeta y tener poderes que nunca podría haber imaginado. Cuando se enteran de sus padres biológicos y de un deber sagrado, Sky y Ocean comienzan un viaje lleno de intriga y aventura.
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畅销书
漫长的回家路
Sky 是一个普通的小女孩，除了她和她的妹妹 Ocean 是收养的。一天，Sky另一条路去学校，在那里她遇到了Old Man Rain。那次会面永远改变了她的生活。 Sky很快发现她可能来自另一个星球，并拥有她从未想过的力量。当他们发现自己的亲生父母和一项神圣的职责后，Sky和Ocean开始了一段充满阴谋和冒险的旅程。
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Book Reviews
“Just say my name when it rains, and I will come to you, Sky.”
One morning nine-year-old Sky takes Cane Street to get to school quickly so she can pick up her sister’s schoolwork. Sky’s sister, Ocean, is home sick, and Sky takes the shortcut to get to school early. However, Sky walks in the wrong direction and is in despair that she may be lost. She encounters an old man who identifies himself as Old Man Rain. Known for helping lost children, Old Man Rain puts her at ease with a smile. After Old Man Rain helps Sky find her way, he tells her, “Just say my name when it rains, and I will come to you, Sky.” She soon discovers that there is more to the encounter than she could ever imagine and that Old Man Rain holds many secrets to the sisters’ past. He comes to Sky and Ocean as a young boy and tells them of their biological parents, who Eviler had killed so he could steal their powers. Now, Sky learns that she possesses special powers bestowed on her by her father before his death and that her adoptive parents are guardian angels made from the essence of her birth parents. It is time for Sky to fulfill her destiny and return to her home planet, Omohafe. In the form of the young boy named June, Old Man Rain shows her how to use her powers to return to Omohafe.
In this unique children’s book, young readers are given a taste of fantasy. The book offers ample opportunity for an in-depth discussion with children. The school scene concentrates on weather, and concepts such as condensation can be taught to even very young readers. Children will be intrigued by Sky’s powers which are tied to her emotions. “Well, Sky does not know this, but she can move the sky with her emotions, and move people from anywhere in the universe.” Concepts such as caring for others, getting to know new people, and sharing can also be explored while reading. The book is a wonderful way to introduce young children to the fantasy genre with Sky’s backstory of her parents’ death by the hand of Eviler and her inheritance of her father’s powers. Children may be prompted to explore their own creativity by sharing thoughts on what may happen when Sky and Ocean are magically transported to their home planet. “Now it is time for you to use your power to help out Omohafe.”
The book lends itself to discussions of what is real and what is fantasy which many children will find entertaining. Hand weaves a delightful tale in this children’s book. Parents will find much to explore with their young children as they discuss Old Man Rain and the story of Sky and her sister, Ocean. This beautifully illustrated work offers an interesting plot, relatable characters, and a cliff-hanger ending, allowing children to use their own creativity as they guess what may lie in store for the two sisters. Filled with mystery and magic, this is one that kids will want to read again and again.
Book Review by: Kat Kennedy
With The Long Road Home, children’s author West Hand, or Georgia Amiewalan,launches a new series, introducing young readers to a fascinating world of fantasy that both entertains and educates. The story begins when Sky, a smart little girl, has somehow lost her way to school after trying out a new road. Luckily, she meets up with Old Rain Man, who likes to help lost children, and he directs her to school, where coincidentally, her class will be focusing on the subject of weather. Sky will attempt to explain what rain is, impressing everyone by using the big word “condensation.” At home she is greeted by a boy who says he is the Old Rain Man, but who, when sleeping and dreaming, realizes that he is in fact named June, and that he is here to introduce Sky to her special powers. But after the nap, the boy disappears, so Sky and her younger sister Ocean will not hear the true story of their remarkable destiny immediately. The rainy season is over but returns in several months, when the boy, revealing his true angelic nature and name, will tell Sky a tale that will both distress and enlighten her, about who she is, and why she is specially gifted to save a faraway planet. As rain begins to fall, Sky and Ocean are set to begin a special journey to save their beautiful new home, even as they know there may be serious perils involved. Hand has worked for many years in the field of child development. With five children of her own, she is well suited to compose stories for and about youngsters. The book’s illustrations are bright and cheerful, showing Sky’s adventures clearly and depicting both Sky’s school and her family as multi-racial, a salient touch that suits the book’s central theme – the transformation of a child and her entry into a different but very charming realm to right past wrongs and create a more positive future. Hand’s book, which is also offered in a Chinese version, is meant to attract and intrigue thoughtful youngsters who can ride along with two bold little girls facing extraordinary challenges. The book is envisioned as a series that should make for lively classroom discussion and home-based chat. And readers of this portion will certainly be lookingforward to finding out what happens next to sisters Sky and Ocean and their new friend June
Reviewed by: Barbara Bamberger Scott
I must say The Long Road Home, by author West Hand, is unlike any story I have ever read. It begins with such n ordinary day in the life of these little girls Sky, along with her sister Ocean, walking to school – and frankly ends up as Sky and Ocean are on a new planet somewhere far off in the Universe. How they got there and what they encountered along the way will fill the imaginations of children in a loving way. It brings in a cast of ordinary characters, such as a school teacher, then spices it up with angels, while toying with the element of time travel itself – as an old man becomes a young child– and finally having the girls take a ride in a rocket and seeing a type of UFO as they frolic on a new and distant planet. In short, it is the genre of a book Rod Serling would most likely love to have read to his daughter at bedtime.
With a variety of deeply rooted themes of inter-racial couples, adoption of babies (due to their birth-parents dying), school, weather, and of course, the coincidental circumstances of walking on the other side of the street causing fate to unfold in a new and unpredictable way, The Long Road Home will open the readers’ minds like Jack & Jill couldn’t imagine; more like a Lewis Caroll book without the personified rabbit or fanciful characters. In two words, it is very “creatively unique.”
On my second reading of this book, I knew what to expect and wanted to dive deeper into the morals and philosophy West Hand embedded, and I must say with each reading now I tend to see new things. Along with the very artfully crafted illustrations, which are necessary to help readers’ imaginations grasp the story-line, this book will open slightly different meanings to many readers. Children want to have stories which challenge their minds to comprehend new events, and this book definitely is a “reach” for a bedtime fantasy. It shows love, both the parents of the adopted girls and the deceased parents of these little girls, always watching over them while they are growing up, and how the spirits of the dead parents reveal themselves at the right time. That latter example is at a time the girls took the long road home which is the root-cause to the effect of so much change.
Written with a loving style, encompassing compassion and tolerance for all people, and something out-of-the-ordinary, The Long Road Home by author West Hand will become a favorite among children just beginning to enjoy the fantastical events bestowed infictional books