I have finally found the good old American story on the 2013 Rebecca Caudill list! It will probably be considered contemporary realistic fiction by the adults, but will likely be called historical fiction by the kids. I call it nostalgic – the setting is the early 1980s! Hurray! My era. There is nothing fantastical about it. The kids earn the fruits of their labor manure and all. Your heartstrings won’t be tugged, but you might feel some anxiety vicariously through the characters.
I like apples. The Honeycrisp variety is my favorite. They taste like autumn. They are huge and typically costly. They make me feel guilty. But I cannot say no. My mom usually buys a variety. I never know what she will place before me to slice to share. We’ve had Gala, Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Fuji – it is always a surprise. I have had a few apple trees on my property at various times in my life. They’ve always been more of a hassle – squirrels have pelted me with their cores. And I have never known how to properly take care of them to produce an honest to goodness crop. Now I will never look at apples the same way again!
If you haven’t guessed yet, the money on them trees is apples! 300 trees. 150 Roman Beauty and 150 Golden Delicious. But trees alone will not produce dollar signs. It takes a hard-working, year in the life of a thirteen-year-old boy, his two younger sisters and their three cousins who live next door. When I say hard-work, I mean every weekday after school from the time they get home until dark and every Saturday from sunup until sundown. Forget summer vacation. Just as they get one job done, a new one appears, but the hardest part is the waiting – the waiting for ripe apples to pick. And don’t think they get paid until those apples are sold either. Talk about patience!
Our thirteen-year-old boy is Jackson Jones and he really didn’t one an apple orchard. He didn’t really want to spend his entire summer working either, but his dad laid down the law. Jackson’s dad was already working as hard as a grown man by the time he was fourteen and there is no way a son of his is going to grow up to be a lazy freeloader. Jackson has a choice. He can take his father’s advice and work in the scrapyard with the school bully – not! - or he can accept his next door neighbor, Mrs. Nelson’s offer.
Mrs. Nelson is a lonely widow. Her husband used to work the apple orchard as sort of a hobby. Mrs. Nelson’s son wants nothing to do with the orchard. The land is worth more than the neglected trees upon it. Mrs. Nelson is waxing nostalgic and wishes to see her husband’s dream restored. She is looking for the “true heir” of the orchard and she gives Jackson first dibs. Unfortunately, Mrs. Nelson doesn’t understand any better than Jackson the work required restoring the orchard and then producing a crop as well. Now Jackson has a contract and he is not entirely certain that it is possible to hold up his end of the deal.
And here is the part that I can identify most with. Jackson needs laborers and he has them, ready-made, in the form of siblings and cousins. But he has to bribe them into helping without telling them the entire story. How can he continue to encourage them to put their hearts, souls and blisters into the work? And what is going to happen when or if there isn’t a pay off? Anyone who has close cousins will appreciate these relationships. I was the older girl cousin who would do anything to support or encourage my one year younger boy cousin who happened to have the best ideas if only we could pull them off!
Recommending to everyone! Boss, 80s children, boys, girls, tweens!
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