This week’s Bookshelf is about a children’s book penned by a former governor, a historical novel set during the Leo Frank trial and an upcoming appearance by a literary powerhouse.
A promise kept: Nathan Deal has an impressive resume a mile long. He was a captain in the Army, a criminal prosecutor, a judge, a state Senator, a U.S. congressman and Georgia’s governor for two terms. Now, at age 81, he can add children’s book author to his list of accomplishments.
“Veto, the Governor’s Cat” (Booklogix, $12.99 paperback) is a 60-page, illustrated book for readers ages 7-10.
“In most instances, it is a true story about a cat named Veto, who still lives with me in my home in Habersham County, and his brother Bill, who passed away after they moved from the mansion,” said Deal. “It’s intended to teach a lesson through the encounters that Veto the cat has with other animals and birds and the lessons they teach him.”
The book is a tribute of sorts to his wife, Sandra Deal, who made literacy and early childhood education a priority during her two terms as first lady.
“My wife requested I write a children’s book because she was getting so many requests after she left office as first lady to continue to read to children,” said Deal. “She’d read to, we estimate, a quarter of a million children in their individual classrooms in every county and all 180 school systems in the state, so I promised to write her a book. But then she got diagnosed with brain cancer, and I realized I hadn’t done it, so I got busy and wrote the book.”
Credit: Booklogix
Credit: Booklogix
Last Wednesday, copies of the book were distributed at the Sandra Dunagan Deal Center for Early Language and Literacy at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville. The center is dedicated to research, professional education and community engagement to promote literacy in children from birth to age 8.
The book is illustrated by Cheryl Riner Hodge, a watercolorist in Rome. A portion of the proceeds from book sales will go to The Deal Foundation.
“Children can learn from a lot of different sources,” Deal said. “Sometimes, if they see things through the eyes of an animal, it may be a little more interesting than people telling them things. But the inspiration was my wife, who died from brain cancer two years ago.”
A book launch event will be held at the Atlanta History Center on August 14. For details, go to www.atlantahistorycenter.com.
Credit: Open Road Media
Credit: Open Road Media
Leo Frank redux: Following on the heels of “The Curators” by Maggie Nye, which Bookshelf reported on last month, comes Mary Glickman’s “Ain’t No Grave” (Open Road Media, $21.99), also set against the backdrop of the Leo Frank trial.
In this case, the focus is on a love story between Max, a white, middle-class Jewish boy, and Ruby, the daughter of a Black sharecropper. They’re 9 years old when they meet in 1906 rural Georgia and become smitten with one another. But they’re soon separated, only to be reunited seven years later in Atlanta where Ruby is a factory worker and Max is a cub reporter for the Atlanta Journal assigned to cover Frank’s murder trial. As Ruby and Max try to forge a bond, the city roils with racial tension that threatens to tear them apart.
A resident of Sea Island, Glickman was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award for her novel “One More River.” “Ain’t No Grave” is her sixth historical novel.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Paperback writer: Renowned English author Zadie Smith, who’s racked up awards including the Guardian First Book Award, the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, comes to Atlanta on September 20 for the paperback release of her first historical novel, “The Fraud” (Penguin Random House, $19).
Set in Victorian England and the sugar cane plantations of Jamaica, “The Fraud” revolves around the criminal trial of a butcher from Australia who claims to be Sir Richard Tichborne, beneficiary of an estate of great wealth and influence. Despite the fact he’s clearly not, he becomes a populist hero as people rally around him, insisting he be given the title.
The event is presented by A Cappella Books at SCADshow. Tickets are $20 and include a copy of the book. For details, go to www.acappellabooks.com.
Suzanne Van Atten is a book critic and contributing editor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She can be reached at Suzanne.VanAtten@ajc.com.
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