Penny Lauer

Skipping Stones Penny Lauer

Skipping Stones is a heartrending work of fiction that brings to dramatic life the story of three beautiful children and a kind, talented woman trapped in a tragic situation of heartache and cruelty, which can only be remedied through the healing qualities of nature and unconditional love. This gripping, and at times graphic, depiction of the realities of domestic violence in an upscale home is at once emotionally moving, deeply informative, and ultimately uplifiting. In the seemingly perfect world of his Aunt Jess and Uncle Steve's expansive home, twelve-year-old Josh must come to terms with both the death of his mother and the web of subterfuge and denial that masks the reality that Uncle Steve is an abuser. Josh risks everything that is important to him to save his aunt and cousins, drawing sustenance from entries in his mother's diary that confirm her wisdom and strength, enduring love from his new-found father, and the books, Jonathon Livingston Seagull and Watership Down. Truth and the courage of unlikely heroes are steadily revealed to Josh, and he finds that he is able to make use of life's simple pleasures and the mysteries of the natural world to inspire and comfort his cousins, who finally vow to "Be the Gull!" It is a poignant story of a family's path of enduring and ultimately prevailing over the emotional, verbal and physical abuse from their attorney patriarch. The story of Josh comes full circle when his father reveals the secret his mother was going to disclose the day she died. The story of Jess, Ben and Katie ends and begins when their silence is finally broken.