The Quiet Game + Study Guide/The Story Teller + Study Guide

Two stories and feedback guides for kids at home The Quiet Game Carrie sprawled in the shade of the cliff that ran along the Lake Michigan shoreline, her ankle swelling into a black and blue softball. Why did I have to come so far? she wondered. Two miles past the creek. To see deer tracks …

Lawn Ornaments

when does craft become art I enjoyed visiting my neighbor’s workshop. Joe’s basement had the cozy smells of pine boards, sawdust, and fresh paint. Every time I went down his stairs, I was transported to our church boy’s club where volunteers helped us trace comic book figures onto ¼ inch plywood to be sawn on …

Back Flash

Grandkids can get us thinking “So, how was your soccer game?” I ask my 8-year old grandson. “Good,” he mutters staring out the car window. “Did you score any goals?” “Huh? One.” He shrugs tossing his tangle of summer streaked brown hair. A woman could sit in a beauty shop all day to achieve that …

Two Negatives Make a Positive

A new slant on speed dating Professor Jonathan Stanley took the aisle seat in row 22 of Delta flight 322. Another man sat at the window. He had finally settled his carry-on bag under the seat and buckled-in when a pair of woman’s strap sandals stopped next to him. A quick glance took in trim, …

Voyeurs and Game Drives

a safari guide gets in the picture Ever heard of the Ngorongoro crater in Tanzania? It’s a 3,000 square mile sunken bowl of an extinct volcano making a kind of enclosed zoo for many species of African fauna. I regularly drive down into this self-contained Eden with tourists from around the world conducting what are …

Let Down

after you catch a rainbow…trout The steelhead exploded out of the river like a submarine missile. Straight up. A chrome plated exclamation point with a pink stripe down its side. Thrashing off water like a wet dog. Thirty inches at least. Ten maybe twelve pounds. And it splashed down right past my orange crank bait. …

The Cabin

A getaway for secret fantasies and cairns He loved going out to The Cabin. That’s what he called his landlocked ten acres snugged between the back of a home on CR 306 and a circling cornfield. It was his getaway place. It took a narrow trail to get to the hill where he had built …