The Lost Celt
by A. E. Conran (Author)
Booktalk: The BIG Picture
Primed by their favorite video war game pitting Celts against Romans, Mikey and Kyler are convinced that they’ve seen a real live Celtic warrior. Has the Celt time-traveled as part of a secret defense project? In tracking him down, the boys solve the biggest mystery of their lives.
Read this book for Memorial Day.
#kidlit Writing Lesson: the small details
Video games and real life meet in chapter 1. First, readers see Mikey playing his video game as they wait for Grandpa’s doctor. In the game, the fighting is accompanied by war cries:
They leap off their chariots, flying over the heads of the leading Romans, straight into the middle of the formation. No one can stop them. They’re roaring and ripping the Romans apart, cutting great swaths through the legion, screaming war cries…when there’s a lot more shouting, and it takes me a second to realize it’s not coming from the screen.
Then real life takes over and a new fighting scene leads to new cries:
I look up. Down the hallway, furniture–or something–is crashing to the floor. People are running all over the place. Someone’s screaming for medicine, and a woman is shouting for help.
“We can’t get near him,” she cries.
As the story continues, the continued fighting leads to a battle cry:
Two V.A. police officers spring past the cubicle, shoes squeaking on the floor. They’re running so fast the curtains billow open and I see their uniforms.
Then, over the top of the noise, a man yells one word as loud as any battle cry. “Cuckooland!”
The fighting scenes move back and forth between physical actions and sounds.
Copyright © 2016 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
