GIVEAWAY
Maggie Vaults Over the Moon
by
Grant Overstake
Read all about Maggie Steele, a role-model for young girls everywhere. This book is best suited to young adults (middle grade through high school), although it truly is a book for the whole family.
Don't forget to enter the GIVEAWAY for your chance to win a paperback copy of Maggie Vaults Over the Moon. Thanks to Grant Overstake for the generous donation of this prize. The giveaway is open internationally.
Description
Don't forget to enter the GIVEAWAY for your chance to win a paperback copy of Maggie Vaults Over the Moon. Thanks to Grant Overstake for the generous donation of this prize. The giveaway is open internationally.
Description
Maggie Vaults Over the Moon retells the story of Maggie Steele, a gutsy, grief-stricken farm girl
from tiny Grain Valley, Kansas, who pours her broken heart into the daring and
dangerous sport of pole-vaulting. Driven by a secret that she dare not share
with anyone, Maggie struggles over many obstacles as she attempts to soar way
higher than her critics think a girl should ever go. Gripping in its portrayal
of a teenager's grief and thrilling in its vivid descriptions of the exciting
sport of pole-vaulting, Maggie Vaults
Over the Moon is an inspiring and uplifting read!
Excerpt
CHAPTER
1
Here in Grain Valley Township, we don’t have a paid fire department or ambulance crew to rescue
us. We rescue ourselves. Dad has been a volunteer fireman, or first responder,
since he was eighteen. My late grandpa also was one of the brave men who
protected us, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. Dad always carries an
emergency radio with him, fastened to the belt of his jeans. At night, the
radio sits on the recharger, on his nightstand. No matter where he is or what
he is doing, when the radio goes BEEEP!
he leaps into action. The alarm means someone’s been in some kind of accident
or one of our neighbors’ houses or barns is on fire. It doesn’t happen every
day, but often enough. Too often, I say.
Sometimes the first responders are called out of
our small country church on Sunday morning. Beeping radios go off all over the
sanctuary. And even if the preacher is in the middle of a prayer, the men leap
up and bolt for the door.
Being a first responder may seem exciting, but
it’s stressful and dangerous. For one thing, they never know what kind of
accident they’ll be responding to or how badly someone is hurt. And for
another, since everybody knows everybody else around here, there’s a good
chance that whoever needs help is related to one or more of the first
responders, adding to the pressure.
It was shortly after eleven on Friday night,
June third, almost a year ago, when Dad and Mom and I heard the beeper sound on
the emergency radio. I was in the bathroom washing my face and getting ready for
bed when Dad rushed from the bedroom toward the kitchen and ran out the back
door to his pickup truck, which was parked outside in its usual spot, keys left
in the ignition as always.
I heard the words “two-car crash, both cars are
on fire, 39 Highway, three miles east” as the screen door slammed. The engine
roared and wheels spun on the gravel as he sped away into the night.
Mom came out of the
bedroom in her robe, fussing with her short salt-and-pepper hair. With the
radio gone, the house was quiet. We had no way of knowing what Dad would find
out there on the highway.
“Maggie, have you
heard from your brother or your boyfriend lately?” Mom asked.
“Not since before supper,” I said.
When the alarm goes
out, whoever is closest to the station drives over, opens the metal door, and
starts one or both of the fire trucks, depending on what the call is. Some of
the other men show up within two or three minutes, skidding to a stop and
jumping from their pickups. They put on their boots, jackets, and gloves and dash
to the trucks.
Through the screen door, we heard the sirens.
Both trucks were on the roll.
“Why don’t you call your brother, see when
they’ll be getting back home,” Mom said.
I hit the speed dial on my cell phone. It went
straight to voicemail. Alex’s voice said, “It’s Alex. I can’t get to my phone
right now, leave a message. I’ll call you back.”
“Alex, give us a call,” I said. “There’s a big
wreck on the highway, and we haven’t heard from you guys. So call as soon as
you get this. Bye.”
I dialed my boyfriend, Caleb, and got the same
result—voicemail.
“Hey, Caleb! Call me back just as soon as you
get this, okay?”
I texted Alex and Caleb: Hey!
Where R U 2?
After that we just
sat there at the kitchen table, Mom and me, listening to the grandfather clock
ticking in the dining room, and the old refrigerator humming, and the crickets
chirping outside the screen door. We sat there for twenty or thirty minutes but
nobody called.
Finally Mom said, “Well, maybe they’re still at
the movie.”
I nodded.
“Or maybe they’re just out of range.”
We get lousy cell phone coverage here in rural
Kansas.
They say there’s a special bond between a
brother and sister, that they always know when the other one is in serious
trouble or something. Since I didn’t have either one of those feelings, I
thought Alex and Caleb were fine. I expected them to roll in any minute,
laughing and joking around, heading straight for the refrigerator to eat us out
of house and home. Whoever it was out there in that car wreck, I was sure it
wasn’t them.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Book Trailer
Review
By Kirkus Reviews
In this debut young
adult novel, a farm girl rebounds after a family tragedy, soaring to new
heights as a pole-vaulter.
Teenager Maggie Steele has just lost her brother Alex in a tragic car
accident. He was a beloved son and brother and also an all-star high school athlete
in a small Kansas town where high school sports matter. Maggie is reminded each
day of her brother, and she struggles to cope with life on the farm without
him. She's the only child left to take over the family business, and she has a
sinking feeling she'll be trapped there forever. As she begins her senior year,
she still suffers from grief and anxiety about what to do with the rest of her
life. [Plot spoiler removed] … Maggie finds her purpose. Overstake's novel
exudes sweetness; in some ways, it feels as if it takes place in another era,
as it lacks the dark edge seen in other popular YA stories. Former sportswriter
Overstake's crisp style also gives the pole-vaulting scenes authenticity and
tension. The story will most likely engage younger teenage girls, but its
themes will resonate with anyone who has suffered profound loss.
A fine YA novel about perseverance in sports and in life.
About the Author
Former Miami Herald Sports Writer Grant Overstake is a lifelong
participant in the sport of track and field who competed in the decathlon for
the University of Kansas Jayhawks. A multiple award winner for excellence in
journalism, Maggie Vaults Over the Moon
is the author's premiere work of sports fiction.
