Lost Cause

Lost Cause - Paperback

$17.26
Sale price  $17.26 Regular price 
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Lost Cause

Lost Cause - Paperback

$17.26
Sale price  $17.26 Regular price 

Book Overview

by John Wilson (Author)

"The dialogue is witty and sharp...The Spanish setting oozes charm, beauty and history. Readers will feel as if they are scootering with Steve and Laia along narrow roads and through timeless tiny villages steeped in the memory of a bloody civil war."―Resource Links

Steve thinks a trip to Europe is out of the question this summer―until he attends his grandfather David's will reading and is given an envelope containing an old key, an address, a plane ticket to Barcelona and a request to solve the mystery of what his grandfather was doing in Spain seventy-five years before. At the address, Steve meets a girl named Laia whose family seems to have some connection with Steve's grandfather. Together they find an old suitcase containing a diary that David kept when he fought with the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. Steve and Laia decide to retrace the young soldier's footsteps and, as they do so, read the diary. A they move towards the conclusion of their journey, they begin to understand what drove the young David to go and fight in a doomed cause, how his experiences there haunted him for the rest of his life and what he had to leave behind to escape.

"The descriptions of the war―and the emotional reactions of Steve and his grandfather at two different points in history―are rich and poignant...Some of the most compelling parts are the grandfather's journal entries which give amazing insights into the strategy and struggle of war. These, paired with the stories of the current day Spanish people, paint a complete picture of the war and its enduring effects...Highly Recommended."―CM Magazine

"Posthumous messages and tantalizing clues send a teenager from Canada to Barcelona in search of a hidden chapter from his beloved grandfather's past. Steve slowly gains insight into how it felt to believe passionately in a cause--even, in this case, a doomed one--and then to lose that innocent certainty in the blood and shock of war." ― Kirkus Reviews

"I had to force myself to take a break for food or sleep once in a while." ― YALSA YA Galley Teen Review
Number of Pages: 202
Dimensions: 0.46 x 9 x 6 IN
Publication Date: May 25, 2023
Accelerated Reader:
Quiz Name: Lost Cause
Interest Level: Middle Grades, 4-8
Reading Level: 5.6
Point Value: 6
ISBN9798223943136
Author John Wilson
PublisherJohn Wilson
GenreYoung adult
FormatPaperback
PublishedMay 2023
LanguageENG- English
Pages202
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceKids and Teens & young adults
Print SizeStandard Print

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About John Wilson

Terry began his career in brass at age ten in the band of Tower Colliery in South Wales where his father worked as a miner. He was awarded a Glamorgan scholarship at age eighteen to study the French horn with Barry Tuckwell at the Royal Academy of music in London. Terry later became professor of horn at the Academy. He also conducted brass ensemble classes there, and was later appointed an associate. In the distinguished career that followed he was to become a member of the London Mozart players, the Royal Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra, always in demand for the leading brass ensembles such as the, Barry Tuckwell Horn quartet, the Jack Brymer Wind Soloists and the Philip Jones brass group. Terry composed, conducted, and arranged music for the RPO brass, LSO brass. He also composed the theme and incidental music for Harlech TV's The Pretenders; the orchestra being assembled from London's "session", community, and principals from the London orchestras, and conducted the recording sessions himself, at Abbey road studios. He was invited, by the actor Robert Hardy to arrange the final hymn, for the Rhos-Cwm Tawe male choir, and the solo trumpet of Maurice Murphy, at the memorial service for Richard Burton at the church of St. Martin in the fields Trafalgar square. He played as a member of the LSO, at the opening concert of the Barbican centre and at the Eightieth birthday concert of Aaron Copland, and as a studio player, in backing orchestras for many top performers such as Tony Bennet, Barbara Streisand, Shirley Bassey, Jack Jones, and Peggy Lee. He was a featured player in the orchestras of many world famous arrangers and composers, such as Henry Mancini, Billy May, Michel Legrand and Barry White's "Love Unlimited' orchestra. Terry also played on dozens of film soundtracks, including Battle of Britain, Diamonds are Forever, Superman, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and The Return of the Jedi where he can be heard playing the famous horn solo at the funeral of Darth Vader.

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