The Boy Who Delivered the Wind

Sammy’s family needs money fast.  If he can make ten thousand dollars, they should be OK.  But how can he help?  He and his friend Russ wander in the woods while they hatch various money-making schemes.  Russ finds a stray dog and looks for snakes, while Sammy talks to the plants, trees, and the wind.  All in all, typical boy behavior!  Suddenly, they stumble upon what looks like a cache of stolen goods and Sammy decides he’s going to take few of the items to resell - just a few so they won’t notice anything missing.  He and Russ grab a few electronic gadgets, and talk two local handymen into driving them to Pittsburg to fence the stolen property.  Lo and behold, they make five thousand dollars!    Russ has an Uncle Bill who is a cop, and he tells him about the stolen goods.  But when they go look for the stash, it’s gone.  They find the stash several more times, but they just can’t seem to get Uncle Bill to the scene of the crime.  

Thomas Peters pens an engaging tale of two young boys looking for adventure and finding it!  The story is told in first person by Russ, but needs more depth rather than just a surface description of the boys’ adventures.  The introduction of a school teacher as a part of the crime ring also deserves more explanation.  It seems to just drop into the storyline unexpectedly.  In the end, however, the pure fun wins out as Sammy and Russ find the adventure they’re looking for, and learn something about life as well. 

Victoria Z. Burg