The Willoughby Spit Wonder

Rating:
Summary: A positive, hopeful read
Review: Carter Johnston is a dreamer. He dreams of one day becoming a superhero like his favorite comic book hero, the Sub-Mariner. The Sub-Mariner can breathe underwater, fly, and do a number of other cool things. Carter wishes he could have those powers so he could become the Boy Who Swam Across Hampton Roads. His imaginary life though is very different from the sad but true reality in which he lives.

Carter lives with his sister Minnie and her friend Sylvia on a beach called Willoughby Spit, off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia. There, they enjoy playing along the seaside during their summer vacation. Carter likes to watch the planes leave the naval base and fly out to sea everyday. However, this fascination is also accompanied by fears that his family will be attacked, even though the Korean War is now over. It also brings forth the realization that his father is dying and that his life will never be the same again.

Ray Johnston is an army veteran who loves to live life to the fullest. He enjoys being with his family and sharing in Carter's obsession with comic books. Sadly, Carter discovers that his dad needs help when he overhears him in a moment of weakness. It is then that Carter decides to be a source of encouragement for his father and tries to become the Sub-Mariner by swimming across the Atlantic Ocean.

Carter is growing up and so are his friends. He learns that the world he has known is changing. From his father's illness to his sister becoming a young woman, Carter sees the differences between the past and the present, life and death. He also realizes that dreams don't always become the reality that you would like them to be. Will Carter Johnston ever be The Willoughby Spit Wonder?

THE WILLOUGHBY SPIT WONDER is a poignant story that will make you think long and hard about your dreams. Jonathon Scott Fuqua conveys to readers that if you try your best, your dreams can come true --- no matter how impossible they may be to achieve --- as well as the fact that you can indeed make a positive difference in another person's life.

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Rating:
Summary: Touching, lovely, and hopeful
Review: I have more than enthusiastically read all of Jonathon's books, so I had little doubt I would enjoy The Willoughby Spit Wonder. Upon reading the first sentence, however, I was surprised to note the different voice Jonathon employed. It is in omniscient as opposed to first person, which I have surely enjoyed in his other stories, the award winning novels Darby and The Reappearance of Sam Webber. Truth be told, I love first person because it is so personal and specific, so I wasn't sure how I would take to the voice of Willoughby.
I took to it all right. In fact, the way Willoughby is written absolutely plunges the reader into the 1950's, the pressures and fears of the time, and the actual items (toys, bug spray, etc.) that people used daily. More than that, though, it plunges you deep into the heart and soul of a boy struggling with loss.
As I read, I began to wonder if Jonathon intentionally set up metaphors between that time and now, showing how history repeats itself and that by referencing the twentieth century a child can find both strength and hope in this era of terrorism and war. As for the story, I don't believe it could be written any more powerfully, for it is the powerful tale of a child's passage from a watcher to a participant and chronicles Carter Johnston's growing knowledge about the world and the dynamics of his family, particularly the dynamics of his father.
Carter's father, understand, is dying of an unnamed illness, and Carter wants to show him that if he wants to live enough, he will. In hopes of illustrating the point, Carter begins to create a fantasy world about himself and his origin. In fact, he begins to imagine himself an Atlantian with abilities like his favorite superhero, Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner. It is with this notion in mind (or maybe not, because doubt is surely creeping in) that he plans to swim across the Hampton Roads, a vast body of water just off the Chesapeake Bay.
What the reader gets, in the end, is a beautifully rendered story about loss, love, and affection. The father, Ray, is such a wonderful character that adults will want to model themselves after him even though his time is painfully, maddeningly ticking away. Carter's summer and survival in a raging storm is equally heartbreaking (I have no doubt that you will cry at the end) and exciting. This is a classic book waiting to be seen and heard, a story for all.
In conclusion, I would highly recommend The Willoughby Spit Wonder to children and adults, especially those who have lost family members. It is a gorgeously written, elegantly told epic of love, death, and hope. As a teacher, I would not hesitate to use it in a any school capacity, from history, to story development, to an examination of the written voice. Jonathon Fuqua is a master storyteller and this is a tour de force work that will leave you exceedingly grateful for the time you shared with the Johnston family and Carter in particular.
Buy it!

Rating:
Summary: Exciting
Review: Just read this kid's book trying not to like it. I'm a writer too and it's competition, even though I write for adults. So, anyway, I got a story coming out that takes place partway in Norfolk, and I thought this would be a weak image of my far more expansive tale. It ain't. This is good. It ain't just for kids either. I am mightily impressed by Fuqua's lovely impressions of the area, of a dying man, and a boy who's tougher than nails and funnier than a dog in human clothes. Buy the book. You'll like it. You won't put the thing down, in fact. And I'm sorry to say that.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing, and exciting, and helpful!
Review: My mom gave me this after reading about it in the newspaper. I live near Willoughby Spit, and I also lost my father, and this book was so helpful I can't explain. It made me appreciate my father so much more for how he'd lived. I really enjoyed Carter Johnston, the main character too. Hew as so real, the way he talked to his sister and dreamed of being a superhero named The Sub-Mariner. The book takes place in 1953, after the Korean War and after somebody had just climbed Mt. Everest, and while the communists are supposedly taking over the country. It's about a father dying of a disease and how Carter wants to show him that if he wants to live enough he can. He finds out something that I won't tell you so I don't ruin it, but it's good. This story makes you laugh and if you lost a parent makes you probably cry. It is exciting, because Carter decides to swim across the Chesapeake Bay in the middle of a hurricane. For me, the story made me feel like I was drowning once, but it mostly made me feel like its summertime and I'm free and on a beach. I highly recommend this book for everybody. It feels like summer and feels like for a moment your parents are so special you can't even explain it.