For Seller

By: Lillian Brummet

This is certainly an unusual tale. Here we have Caleb, a
child from a single and destitute mother, who is taken in by
a trusted friend of the family. The father figure for Caleb has
never been a father; he is not married and has little
experience with children. Despite all of this, the two blend
well together and create their own version of “family” - with
just the two of them.

Issues from raising a child as a single father, without a
mother’s presence and tackling stereotyped views that a
man cannot adopt a child by himself were raised in a
compelling manor right from the start. Difficulties in
handling corrupt and ruined systems in some medical and
childcare arenas are also raised with strong emotion. The
author brings up the fact that schools who teach children as
a generic mass rather than focusing on the individual, leave
too many children on their own. Careless doctors,
thoughtless education systems, unreasonable and
unbending childcare rules"¦ All of these are addressed in
Caleb’s Branch.

Young Caleb is a gifted and abused child that is overdosed
with prescription drugs, strung out and hyper active when he
arrives at his new home. He has a secret ability to see
things that others cannot. The author uses this to slip back
in time to the family who lived on the same piece land
generations ago, where we are shown another kind of a
father-son relationship.

Often justifiable, but tiring and emotional rants were used to
relay the rage and frustration felt by the new father in this
story. The writing style was definitely descriptive -
sometimes a little over descriptive for my tastes. The way
the author concluded Caleb’s Branch had me wondering if I
had missed some pages, because it didn’t really conclude.
It is painfully obvious that there will be a book two on the
slate, which might provide the explanations and closure that
are missing in this book.

Caleb’s Branch, a relatively large book with over 400 pages,
is difficult to classify. It is a family story with mysterious and
paranormal occurrences that involves two families
separated by generations, yet connected through a little boy
named Caleb and the land they have all called “home”. I
thought it was particularly interesting that the author showed
how having children can sometimes bring a new
understanding of our upbringing and our parents - and
therefore, of our selves.

~ Book Reviewer: Lillian Brummet - Co-author of the book
Trash Talk, a guide for anyone concerned about his or her
impact on the environment - Author of Towards
Understanding, a collection of poetry.
(http://www.sunshinecable.com/~drumit)