"River Rocks" by Steve Kittner

Josh Baker and his best friend Eddie are 14, and they’ve grown up together in the Kanawha River Valley of West Virginia. There is nothing they love better, well, almost nothing, than to fish. A close second might be camping out in the woods.  

It is by fishing one day that the boys discover an old-fashioned milk can, with a sealed lid. It’s sealed pretty strongly, but it eventually gives way before two determined boys. And inside the can they find a sketch made on old animal skin, accompanied by writing with some of the letters missing or faded. 

 

What they can make out are the words “Southern Jewel.” They have a friend working at the library who agrees to help with some of the research; Josh has something of a crush on the “older woman” (she’s 17). Slowly but surely they begin to unravel what the map is about – a train robbery from more than a century earlier, rumors of Confederate gold, and the deaths of five railroad employees. The boys soon realize they’re on the verge of one of the greatest dreams for any kid – a hunt for long-forgotten treasure.

 

The problem is, several other people are just as interested. And someone is going to let nothing stand his way, including two young teenaged boys. 

Steve Kittner

River Rocks: A West Virginia Adventure Novel by Steve Kittner is the story of Josh, Eddie, their friends, and their enemies, all on the hunt for gold from the old Confederacy. The story is aimed at the middle grades, but it’s a fun read for almost any age from 10 and up. It’s not only a mystery and suspense story; it’s also a coming-of-age story that strikes similar chords for any of us who were once teenagers. Which is all of us.

 

Kittner was born and raised along the Elk River in West Virginia, and the story reflects a number of his own growing-up experiences in the river valley and forests of the area. River Rocks is the first in a series, the others being What Lies in the Hills, What Lies in the Sea, and What Lies the Keys. He’s also written several stories for young children. He and his family live in Florida.

 

For those of us who grew up with woods nearby, a river (no matter how large or small), and the imagination to invent stories and mysteries almost out of whole cloth, River Rocks is an entertaining tale with a touch of childhood nostalgia. And it has a nail-biting, cliffhanger of an ending.

“Appalachian Serenade” by Sarah Loudin Thomas

It’s the closing months of World War II, and Delilah Morrissey is back in Wise, West Virginia, the small town where she grew up. She’s taken refuge with her sister and brother-in-law after the death of her husband from a heart attack. She had lived in Chicago, and what looked like a glamorous, exciting lifestyle from outside masked an increasingly disastrous marriage.

Sarah Loudin Thomas

Delilah is 34, and she knows that time is working against her dream of a large family. At the moment, it’s working against the idea of marriage. But at Thornton’s General Store, she meets Robert Thornton, handsome, unmarried, in his 40s, and, Delilah will come to know, unable to have children. As for Robert, he finds himself falling in love with Delilah, but he comes to understand her desire for children.

The novella Appalachian Serenade by Sarah Loudin Thomas is the story of Delilah and Robert, and a sweet story it is. It may be hard to find two people more meant for each other than these two people groping for love and understanding. It may also be hard to find two people who seem to go out of their way to avoid falling in love, to the point of Delilah trying to play matchmaker between Robert and an old flame.

Thomas is the author of several novels and stories in the Christian fiction genre. Her stories are set in West Virginia and celebrate Appalachian people and culture, and Appalachian Serenade is full of small-town West Virginia. Loudin and her family live in western North Carolina.

You’re convinced you know how this story has to end, and you’re not far off. But the process of watching two people fumble and stumble toward each other is what Appalachian Serenade is about.