Tag Archives: middle-grade fiction

12.03.24
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Oh Izzy, Where Art Thou?

Emily Dickinson. Public Domain

If you’re Emily Dickinson, it’s okay.

You can be born in Amherst, live in Amherst, and die in Amherst. You can go to your grave unheralded. 

And then some interfering busybody will publish your poems, and you’ll be famous. Even rich, though only in absentia because by that time, you’ll be . . . elsewhere.

Dear Reader, I am no Emily Dickinson. I find it necessary to promote my own writings while I am still here. 

Not that it will make me famous or rich. But I would like somebody to read what I have written. 

This is especially true of a little book called Izzy Strikes Gold!, published in July 2024. My second novel. The one nearest my heart. 

If you wish to dismiss it, you may call it a middle-grade novel, because that means only pre-teen children should read it.

But here’s a news flash: I wrote it for everybody.

Izzy Mahler is a bright and inquisitive lad, age twelve, the class shrimp in a small Midwestern town. Not everything is going well in his life, but he’s accumulating friends—one by one, almost without being aware of it. And he has private knowledge of a hoard of shiny metal. That could be gold, and gold could help.

The story is set in the Sometimes-But-Not-Always Fabulous Fifties, which lends it a certain charm for those who remember the era, or a sense of wonder for those who have never been there. The kids who inhabit the Fifties are just like kids now—only in a gentler world.

Izzy Strikes Gold! is a charming, sometimes sad, but always honest look at growing up in America, then or now.

It is what we used to call a coming-of-age story.

Did I mention it builds to a Christmastime climax? 

This story is too good to be restricted to middle-schoolers. You can read it too.

Izzy Strikes Gold! is a book for anyone who was ever twelve years old, or ever will be. You can read it with your grandchildren.

It’s available on Amazon, but why not skip Jeff Bezos and give his share directly to my great Wisconsin publisher at https://henschelhausbooks.com/product/izzy-strikes-gold/. (My royalty will be the same in either case.)

I hope you enjoy the read. 

Blessings,

Larry F. Sommers

Your New Favorite Writer

03.12.24
by

Izzy Strikes Gold!

As an old man, it’s easy to see I’ve had a wonderful life, filled with joy, love, and satisfaction.

At age twelve, however, things were not that rosy. Happiness sometimes seemed out of reach.

Casting a fond eye back on the 1950s, I have written a little book about a twelve-year-old boy and his hopes. 

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His name is Izzy Mahler. 
A secret spring: In the New England Woods (1855–65), oil on canvas, by Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826-1900), Public Domain.

Izzy lives in Plumb—an ordinary town sprinkled with a few magical places, like Patch Pagelkopf’s basement . . . the Public Library . . . and the dark, jungly Bottoms, where lustrous minerals lurk in a secret spring of water, waiting to be discovered.

Izzy’s great hope is to be one of the gang, not stand out as the youngest and smallest of his classmates. Fifty-one percent of his brain teems with schemes to fit in, while another fifty-one percent struggles to keep his family together. At times it seems his brain must burst.

Mom and Dad, caught in the grim world of adulthood, act like people from a strange planet. Izzy’s favorite grandpa languishes in a far-away hospital. And Izzy must keep his sister, Christine, from learning how dire things are—because she’s, like, a lttle kid, you know.

Extra money might ease the strains on his family, but Izzy has made a pact with his blood brother Collum to keep mum about the gold from the secret spring. 

Everything comes crashing down when the Russians launch Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. It’s a vile trick to cheat the U.S. of its proper place in Space and make aspiring spacemen Izzy and Collum live out their lives as grim adults on Planet Earth.

What can a twelve-year-old do, in 1957?

You’ll have to read the book to find out. 

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An eleven-year-old boy in 1956.

Izzy Strikes Gold! is a middle-grade novel. Boys and girls from ten to fourteen will identify with Izzy and his friends—steadfast Collum, bellicose Lyle Haycock, enchanting Irma Ruger, and the mystifying Mutt-mutt Corner. 

But their grandparents—folks of an age with Your New Favorite Writer—will also enjoy this serio-comic journey into the rosy land of the past.

Publication is scheduled for July. We’ll have a big launch party. If you’re in or near Madison, Wisconsin, please come help us launch this lovely book. If not, tune in by Zoom. 

In the weeks leading up to publication, you’ll be able to order Izzy Strikes Gold! at a special discount. I’ll let you know when pre-orders open.

Thanks for your constant support in these endeavors.

Blessings,

Larry F. Sommers

Your New Favorite Writer