Navigating Early Audio CD – Audiobook, Unabridged

I read the reviews and found them to show a quality book. I bought this book for my 12 year old grandson and then I downloaded it onto my Kindle so I could read it too. I always want to make certain the books he reads are quality (and I can't always trust the reviews).This book is so intriguing. It sucked me in early and for the first third I totally bought into it. Here's a 13 year old boy, Jack, from Kansas, who has just lost his Mother and his navy Dad he barely knows now sends him to Morton Hill Academy (all boys school) -- so he virtually loses his Dad, too. The school is in Maine so how does a young boy from Kansas fit in?As this story began, I was getting all ready for bullying and negative experiences for Jack but none of that ever, ever happened. He's looked on as different for sure but he's allowed in to make his own mistakes just as all the other boys do. I was grateful for this. Jack connects with a classmate, an odd kid named Early, who seems to have free rein in the school (chooses to live in the basement and goes to classes if he chooses to).Then it started to get weird when Jack and Early start their canoe venture. I was concerned for a bit that this book was becoming absurd; but, it quickly became just phenomenal. This is a very quality book and DEEP. I've told my daughter to please read this book, too, so she can discuss it with her son. There is depth to this book that would provide many quality discussions. No vulgarities, no sexual innuendos, no bullying, just heart warming depth. Please read this book -- it is great for adults, too. I cried.

I’ll be honest. After reading “Moon over Manifest,” I intentionally lowered my expectations for this book – knowing it would be almost impossible for Vanderpool’s second novel to come close to the quality of her debut.Sometimes, it is so nice to be wrong!“Navigating Early” is obviously a different adventure, with a different setting than “Moon over Manifest,” but they both grabbed me from Chapter One … and wouldn’t let go.Jack and Early are two unforgettable characters. As I rode beside them on their amazing journey, I quickly forgot about trying to compare this to any other novel, and I just enjoyed the ride. And what a ride it was!How the different stories “intertwined” and how the author wrapped up everything, was – in a word – beautiful. To quote Jack: “My mom was right. Our stories are all intertwined. It’s just a matter of connecting the dots. I keep looking for her to pop up somewhere in this story. To somehow, mysteriously, be a part of the connections, intersections, and collisions. I keep feeling that I should have something more than just the broken fragments of her teacup tucked away in a box in my closet.”Vanderpool beautifully pieces the broken fragments together, and I will be at the front of the line for her next book.

Navigating Early has a unique and absorbing plot and setting, plus an unusual cast of characters. The writing is intelligent and well-crafted. Pi's story within a story is one-of-a-kind. The only problem is I didn't feel invested in the two main characters, Jack and Early. I wanted them to succeed in their quest, but I didn't feel emotionally connected to them. I don't know why I wasn't drawn to them, since the writing is high-quality. Maybe it's because the other students at the boarding school seemed flat, or maybe it's because I couldn't understand why the school allowed Early to live there without attending classes. Or maybe it's just me.

Like Ms. Vanderpool's first book, MOON OVER MANIFEST, this book is hard to explain, except that it continues her very unusual, very compelling storytelling style. Ms. Vanderpool has a way of taking a completely unbelievable story and turning it into the most natural thing in the world. Of course, it couldn't happen any other way, we find ourselves thinking moments after thinking, you've got to be kidding me.Like MANIFEST, NAVIGATING EARLY is an alienated adolescent's quest to discover a close family member which ends in discovery of self and place. In this book we meet narrator Jack Baker, suddenly uprooted from his life with his mother in Kansas to life in a New England boys' prep school following his mother's death. Being a land-locked Midwesterner, Jack struggles to fit in with the maritime life at his school, but someone else fits in even less well. From our modern perspective, Early Auden might get labeled as autistic, or at least Asperger's. But in his time, and given his father's position at the school before his death, Early is just the odd kid who lives in the custodian's room and attends classes (or doesn't) as he pleases.But Early sees things in the world that no one else does and believes impossible things. Like that great bear loose in the woods. And the story of Pi, which most of us know as roughly 3.14, but which for Early is a living boy, struggling through his own life quest. And the thoroughly ridiculous notion that "the Fish" - school hero killed in the war - is still alive and living in the woods of Maine. Jack, both feet firmly planted in reality, is bemused, mystified and utterly exasperated by Early, yet oddly drawn to him. Somehow, against his every rational thought, after his father bails on him for parents' day, Jack finds himself accompanying Early on this quest to prove that Pi doesn't end, the bear does exist and Fisher is still alive. "Absurd," you might think to yourself as you set off with this unlikely pair on their Odyssey. "Of course," you'll think as you come to the completely understandable - indeed, the only possible, if baffling - conclusion.Trying to explain the events of this Odyssey would cause more confusion than clarity, not to mention robbing you of the pleasure of sailing (or rowing, as the case may be) through this book yourself. Just trust in the currents of the book and enjoy the ride. You will meet unforgettable characters and make profound discoveries of your own.This book is written for - and can certainly be appreciated by - middle grade level readers. But don't let that deter you from reading it yourself. The book works on many different levels - the actual plotline; the metaphorical; the cultural, historical and literary. There is treasure here for all ages. In fact, this is one of those books you could read several times and find something new each time. Buy it for your kids, read it for yourself.