4 out of 4 stars
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Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon is about the arduous yet wonder-filled journey of a headstrong orphaned girl named Sarah Cooley, which started when she surprisingly appeared on the doorstep of her grandfather, Tom. The two, along with well-educated Myra and her sailor dad, William, traveled and explored the majestic landscapes of the Olympic National Park on their way to pay customary homage to Sarah's great-great-grandfather, Bob-bob. It was a trip of discoveries and a wonderful instantaneous holiday made interesting by the initial personality skirmishes between Sarah and Tom, the condescending employee presence of a company threatened by the group of four's find, and, more especially, Sarah's perplexing yet stirring extraordinary experience.
The adventure fiction book is not for those who prefer either factual historical accounts or fantastical tales in the purest form per traditional definitions. On the other hand, it will appeal to those who are open to be enticed by a unique blend of pragmatic consciousness and imaginative mysticism.
I give the book 4 out of 4 stars because it is flawlessly-written in both technical and aesthetic terms. I like the seamless way it interwove convention and tradition as it looks at Tom who didn't believe in folklore much but still chose to trek great lengths to remember a deceased ancestor. Customary societal norms and generational unique identifiers are challenged when thirteen year old Sarah disdained the rigidity of her grandfather's expectations, seasoned by her past to become a young woman in her own right at such an early stage. As she was plunged into a thrilling yet dangerous mysterious caper, her romp turned into a feat which not only changed her life but gave her something that the others could only hope for. The contrast and interplay between trusted established pedagogy and controversial unwritten lore had been highlighted in Myra who, with her education and stature in the scientific community, would have always stuck to facts but was still enthralled by fables of the past to anchor her theories on. Also revealed is how initially-unbelievable assumptions could become foundations for strongly-supported theoretical explorations when geneticist Sergei joined the four in their latter journey. His original ideas may have unexpectedly clashed with Myra's despite their career common grounds but he inevitably got swayed by convincing new findings later on.
I also admire how the author cleverly integrated tinges of his own personal background into the book's characters' thoughts and propensities. With a graduate degree himself, he has armed Myra and Sergei with his same brand of technically-intensive breadth of knowledge to explore and challenge existing accepted data on human migration. Also as a wayfaring sailor by profession and a frequent wanderer in the Olympics by choice himself, he adeptly mustered his nautical expertise and past-time passions in carefully laying out the way points, landmarks, navigational courses, and everything else to complement and complete the fanciful land and sea backdrops of the book's voyages and perspectives.
I noticed three errors in the piece but such were just very minor ones, which were the following: a misplaced word (i.e. "urgent") in line 2 of paragraph 2 in page 1; an extra "it" in line 7 at paragraph 1 of page 9; and, "Across the Bering land bridge" in line 9 of page 26 is a fragment or not a complete thought and, thus, not a grammatically-correct declarative sentence. As compared to my first book review in this site, this one took me a longer time to complete. The greater number of words per page obscured readability and made it more difficult for me to finish the book to begin with. However, this could be resolvable in a subsequent printed version of the book or variations thereof, and doesn't essentially totally diminish the written work's undeniable worth and compelling merits.
******
Strong Heart
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