Captivating Characters of September link-up opportunity! Please join the link party or share your most captivating character in the comments.

Carol’s Captivating Characters of September Link-Up

On the last Friday of the month, I will write a post about my most captivating character of the month and create a Link Party (see link below my review)! In addition to hearing about the memorable characters that have captivated you, I also want this new project to facilitate new bookish friendships, help you find your book twin, and promote blog engagement. This link party will stay active for 30 days. In exchange for linking your post back to this one, I promise to visit every blog post that links up, leave a comment, and share your post once on #bookx and #booksky.

Captivating Character Link Up Details:

1. You can use fictional or real characters/persons.
2. Link up a review that specifically highlights a captivating character or person, or write a post dedicated to your most captivating character or person of the month.
3. Please include a link back to this (monthly) post.
4. Be kind: visit one other post in the link-up and leave a comment.
5. #CaptivatingCharacters25

No blog? No problem! Share your most captivating character of the month in the comments.

I appreciate my loyal and kind supporters, Joanne @ Portobello Book Blog and Rosie @ Rosie Amber, for linking up with me last month. Check out their posts.

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Finn

Name of Captivating Character: Finn
The reason he is captivating: Determined, Reflective, Good Sport, Earnest
Book and Author: The Trouble with Heroes by Kate Messner
Genre/Categories/Setting: Contemporary Fiction, (upper) Middle-Grade Fiction, Novel in Verse, Hiking, Grief, Reparations, Healing, Adirondacks, 46ers
Mood: Pensive, Inspiring, Reflective, Heartfelt
Content Considerations: Grief, Death of a Parent (in the past)

Finn is getting into some trouble, grieving the loss of his father and has many questions surrounding his father’s death. Finn’s father was a firefighter and a hero to many, but is he Finn’s hero? What is a hero?

In a life-changing moment, the woman, who is the daughter of the headstone Finn vandalized, offers him a challenge and a chance for making reparations in lieu of a court-ordered consequence: Hike the 46 highest peaks of the Adirondack Mountains (in honor of my mother) and take her dog. (Read all about the 46R hiking challenge here)

Reparations: the act of making amends, offering expiation, or giving satisfaction for a wrong or injury

Finn needs a second chance and some quality time for serious reflection. He’s a good kid at heart, but he’s angry, grieving, confused, and mad.

At first, I was worried about Finn hiking alone, but the woman who offers the challenge organizes the hikes and arranges for an experienced hiking buddy for each hike. These hiking buddies offer more than safety. They are kind souls/mentors who share stories, nature facts, experiences, and life lessons at times. They are also attentive listeners if Finn wants to talk about his dad and/or his grief.

Finn is also working on a makeup assignment for school over the summer which involves writing poetry. In fact, The Trouble with Heroes is a novel in verse which adds lightness to the story’s heavier topics and is one of my favorite forms of poetry. You will appreciate Finn’s “voice” as he expresses himself in free verse.

Hikers will enjoy this story! The author is an avid hiker and has hiked the same trails she writes about (a 46R enthusiast). Descriptive and vivid details add to the strong sense of place and provide a substantial measure of authenticity to the story. I feel like I hiked these peaks with Finn!

Finn is not excited about taking the dog, but he’s resigned because it’s part of the deal. The dog provides a lightness to this story of grief and reparations. However, you can probably guess that something will happen to the dog to add an element of drama.

Fans of hiking in the mountains, of compelling middle-grade literature, memorable characters, novels in verse, and second chances will appreciate The Trouble with Heroes. I enjoy Middle Grade Lit because of the likely happy, hopeful, and satisfying endings. Plus, MG can be enjoyed by young readers and adults alike!

Star Rating: 5 Stars

Meet the Author of The Trouble with Heroes, Kate Messner

Kate Messner is passionately curious and writes books that encourage kids to wonder, too. Her titles include award-winning picture books like Over and Under the Rainforest, Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt, The Next President, and How to Read a Story; novels that tackle real-world issues like Chirp, Breakout, All the Answers, and The Seventh Wish; high-interest nonfiction like Tracking Pythons and the History Smashers series; the Fergus and Zeke easy readers; and the popular Ranger in Time chapter books about a time-traveling search and rescue dog.

Kate’s titles are frequently selected for One School, One Book and One School/One Author programs and other community-wide reads. Her books have been New York Times Notable, Junior Library Guild, IndieBound, and Bank Street College of Education Best Books selections. Her novel The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z. won the E.B. White Read Aloud Medal, and her science picture books have been finalists for the American Academy for the Advancement of Sciences/Subaru SB&F prize for excellence in science writing. In 2020, Kate was honored with New York’s Knickerbocker Award for creating a superior body of work supporting curriculum and educational goals.

Before becoming a full-time writer, Kate was a TV news reporter as well as a National Board Certified educator. She grew up in Medina, NY and graduated from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School with a degree in Broadcast Journalism. Kate spent seven years working as a television news producer and reporter in Syracuse, NY and Burlington, VT before going back to school to earn a master’s degree in education for secondary-level English Language Arts. She taught middle school language arts for fifteen years before leaving the classroom to write full time but still spends much of her time in schools, working with kids as a visiting author.

Kate lives on Lake Champlain with her family and is trying to summit all 46 Adirondack High Peaks in between book deadlines. Learn more at her website: http://www.katemessner.com and follow her on Twitter @katemessner.

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You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

(this link party is open for 30 days)

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“Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.”
~Rainer Maria Rilke
“I love the world of words where life and literature connect.”
~Denise J Hughes
“Reading good books ruins you for reading bad ones.”
~Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
“I read because books are a form of transportation, teaching, and connection. Books take us to places we’ve never been, teach us about our world, and help us understand human experience.”
~Madeleine Riley

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