Navigating Early

Vanderpool, C. (2013). Navigating Early. Delacrote Press. 320 pages. ISBN 9780385742092

Primary genre: Historical fiction

Other elements: family, friendship, adventure, coming of age, loss

Intended reader age: 10 and up

Synopsis:

Jack Baker does not get the happy family reunion his mother and he were planning at the end of World War II. Instead of reuniting his family, Jack buries his mother and is shipped off to an all boy’s boarding school while his reclusive father finishes up his stint in the navy. It is at the boarding school that Jack meets Early Auden, a strange boy who picks and chooses the classes he will attend, has a laboratory set up in the school basement, is convinced his brother did not die in the war, and can read a story in the numbers that make up pi. When a mathematician begins to claim that pi is ending, Early convinces Jack to come with him on an adventure to prove that pi was just lost. Early firmly believes that the key to solving the problem lies with the dangerous Appalachian bear that has been terrorizing the local inhabitants.

Review:

One of the things that I enjoyed the most about this story was the way that all the stories and characters tied together at the end. While reading this, I was trying to recall if this occurred in Move Over Manifest but it has been too long since I read it to really remember it all. There were no loose ends, every issue and problem that was introduced received an ending; be it happy or sad.

I loved the sayings that Jack would recall his mother imparting on him. I think my favorite one was when he was thinking about the ruined car he made for the soap box derby. His father’s initial response was the traditional, “You made your bed, now lie in it.” But his mother taught him not to take those traditional ways of looking at things. His mother taught him, “ ‘if you don’t like the bed you’re in, take it apart and make it right’” (p. 9). Those recollections he had of her had me thinking of Bud, Not Buddy’s musings about his mother. Through that story Bud would also require sayings and advice his mother had imparted before passing. Both characters also had a similar experience with how their mother’s passed. Although in Bud they never explained what happened, both mother’s passed away in bed with no pain or suffering.

I read in Vanderpool’s note at the end that for Early she wanted to give him the characteristics of a child with Autism. But, since that was not a term or diagnosis in the time period that the time the story was written, she did not use the classification. Early was just left alone by all the people who did not know how to interact with him or help him, which to my understanding was a fairly common occurrence. I always enjoy when authors include those extra detail because it shows that they took the time to really research and prepare for their story.