Wild Light: A printmaker’s day and night

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After making a rather incredible biological discovery, Delaney was offered a chance to escape to a place that would nurture her brilliance, and she was taking her best friend Cash with her. A novel with the soul of a poem.JeffZentnerproves yet again that he’s one of the most luminous voices writing for young people today.”— RandyRibay,author of National Book Award finalist Patron Saints of Nothing Bogs a bit in the middle and the ending's predictable, but still, did I mention how sweet and all-American these kids are? You'll want to adopt them -- and their poetry teacher practically does (I guess you can get away with this in private schools, but have my doubts). Truly, one of the best books for young people, for any people in recent times. This book, which I read slowly because it was so incredibly moving and I didn't want it to finish, really got to me. I dreamed about it. And this might be because I have elderly parents who have failing health, and I found the Cash's grandparents a little too close to my folk, but I dare you to read this book and not be completely caught up in Chase and his best friend Delaney, their challenges and struggles and their love for each other and for Chase's Papaw and Mamaw.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. Please listen to the full review at: https://bookclubbed.buzzsprout.com/15... A moving and rich novel about friendship, loss, kind strangers, the blindness so often present in the pursuit of love, and love itself. His protagonists have their eyes raised to the sky.”— Daniel Woodrell for The New York Times Book Review Cash lives in the tiny rural town of Sawyer, Tennessee, raised by his beloved grandparents since his mother died from opioid addiction. He’s content for his life to consist simply of going canoeing on the river, mowing people’s lawns, and spending time with his best friend, Delaney.You know when you can sense a book is going to be 5 stars from reading the first chapters, well I knew from chapter 11. A beautiful book and my favorite of Jeff's novels since his debut, which will forever hold a spot on my shelf of all-time favorite reads. In the dim of the porch light I see his eyes, ardent with furious love. It burns through the darkness in me. It pulls me from the maelstrom and drops me, dripping and shivering on the shore.

You can’t fix a car with poetry. “Poetry won’t help you build that new app and make billions. It won’t win you an election. There are so many ways that poetry isn’t useful in the way we think of things as being useful. And yet…We bring poems to read at weddings and funerals. We write them to lovers. When our lives have been burned down around us, we look for that single glowing ember remaining, and that’s a poem. Poetry is one of the highest artistic achievements of humankind.” Cash doesn’t want to ride Delaney’s coattails, and with his grandfather’s emphysema worsening, he fears leaving Tennessee for a life he never imagined. But the thought of Delaney struggling all alone is also too much to bear. Thank you so much Jeff Zentner for writing this gorgeous story!! I’m still in awe... And everyone reading this review, even if you normally don’t read YA: please read this brilliant gem of a book!Overall: This book was stunning and emotional. It was heartwarming and heartbreaking. It was simply something special and worthy of every tear I shed. When you grow up with ugliness and corruption, you surrender to beauty whenever and wherever you find it."

With profound, evocative prose and lyrical insights into the world surrounding a struggling main character, Zentner’s powerful, emotional novel is one you won’t soon forget.” — Buzzfeed Speaking of, the protagonist, an east Tennessee kid named Cash (yes, yes -- after Johnny) who doesn't know he's in love with his best friend, the scientifically brilliant Delaney, becomes a poet himself along the long and winding way. Props to Zentner for giving air-starved poetry some life, then! And for letting the twosome go to a private school in Connecticut without any Connecticut stereotypes. (Zentner's only mess-up is referring to a "New England accent," as if such a single thing exists.) One thing I particularly love about all of Jeff’s books is the message that you don’t have to do overly impressive things to live a life full of love and dignity. While the circumstances that lead to Cash and Delaney ending up at a boarding school are indeed extraordinary, this book goes to show that sometimes our most memorable and important moments can be lunches at McDonald’s, quiet canoe rides on the river, and even doing laundry with a good friend.

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I fell in love with Dr. Adkins, Cash’s poetry teacher, as soon as she entered the stage. Love at first sight. I mean, how could it not be? Like all of Jeff Zentner’s books, In The Wild Light has a heart that beats in Tennessee. And although I’ve never lived in “the volunteer state,” I did call its neighbor to the east home for nearly 30 years - which may be part of the reason why I always feel as though I *know* the small towns that Zentner creates. I’ve been to places like Sawyer, Tennessee. But more importantly, I *know* the people who live and love and sometimes die in there, too.