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    Tucker
    Tucker
    Tucker
    Ebook91 pages1 hour

    Tucker

    By Tom Birdseye

    5/5

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    About this ebook

    Tucker Renfro hasn’t seen his little sister in seven years, and when she finally comes to visit, he’s sure she’s made it her mission to drive him crazy—why won’t Olivia leave him alone?

    Tucker Renfro is obsessed with Native American culture, and nothing is more important to him than his tribe—his dad and his best friend, Joe Allen. When Tucker’s sister comes to visit, he isn’t exactly excited to see her. Tucker hasn’t seen his mother or sister since they left his dad seven years ago, so Olivia is a stranger to him. He cannot believe he has to put up with such an annoying little sister, especially one who won’t stop talking about their mother, whom Tucker can barely remember. No matter how hard she is trying, and no matter how much his dad likes having her around, Tucker will not allow Olivia to be part of his tribe.
     
    But when Olivia tells Tucker that their mom wants to come back so they can live as a family, Tucker can’t help but imagine how great it would be to have everyone together again. Maybe, just maybe, Olivia isn’t the worst sister in the world.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Media
    Release dateJul 15, 2014
    ISBN9781497645967
    Tucker
    Author

    Tom Birdseye

    As a kid, Tom Birdseye was decidedly uninterested in writing—or any academic aspect of school, for that matter—never imagining that he would eventually become a published author. And yet, nineteen titles later—novels, picture books, and nonfiction—that is exactly what has happened. His work has been recognized for its excellence by the International Reading Association, Children’s Book Council, National Council of Social Studies, Society of School Librarians International, Oregon Library Association, and Oregon Reading Association, among others. Combined, his books have either won or been finalists for state children’s choice awards forty-three times. Life, it seems, is full of who’d-a-thought-its. He lives and writes in Corvallis, Oregon, but launches mountaineering expeditions to his beloved Cascades on a regular basis. 

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    Reviews for Tucker

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    • 5/5
      This is a great book that I would recommend reading. From the moment I began reading it I could not put it down. It is a story of an 11-year old boy who has lived with his father since he was four with little contact from his mother or sister. Then his sister decides that she would like to get to know her brother and comes to live with Tucker and his dad for a while. During this time, Tucker resents his little sister yet envies her at the same time.In the classroom I would use conversations and writing to clarify students’ thinking. They would be assigned a certain number of pages or chapters and write a short reflection about what they read. For each assignment I would also assign different aspects that I would like the students to focus on-visualization of the text, predictions, personal connections, literature connections, etc. In the classroom they would then get into their groups and discuss what they had read with one another and report a few main points to the class.

    Book preview

    Tucker - Tom Birdseye

    1

    The bear is asleep. It is lying on its side in the late summer sun like a huge shaggy dog. I can hear it breathe—in and out, in and out. The sound covers the mountainside as if the boulders and pines themselves are alive. I stand very still, my breath shallow, silent as it crosses my dry lips.

    The breeze picks up again. The bear’s fur moves, the hairs standing up like soldiers on guard. They glow the color of cinnamon in the sun, except on the ends, which are silver. My heartbeat quickens. It is a grizzly that I stalk.

    Slowly, more so than all the braves who have stalked and touched sleeping bears before me, I lift one foot and move it forward. I do not take my eyes from the bear. If it wakes it will descend on me with the angry speed of a clap of thunder. There will be no time to run away or climb a tree. I have no weapon. I must touch my foot to the ground in rhythm with the natural sounds of the forest. It must come to rest so gently and evenly that no twig snaps, no stone turns, as if my toes have eyes.

    Now I move the other foot forward, crouching low as I approach the bear. Elders wait at the village for me, sending out their prayers for my success in this test of skill and bravery. They remember when they too stalked the bear. They can still feel the coarseness of its fur on their fingertips. They have always carried the day that they became a man very close in their hearts. I will do the same.

    The pungent smell of the sleeping bear suddenly reaches my nostrils. I am only three, no, maybe four steps away. There is no turning back. I must keep my mind clear. Noisy thoughts would wake him as surely as noisy feet. I take a deep, slow breath and hold it. I move silently forward and reach out my hand, stretching through the shortening distance between human and beast, hunter and hunter. Balancing my life on my fingertips, I will now … touch … the bear—

    Tucker, she’s here.

    I will now … touch … the bear—

    Olivia’s flight just arrived at gate three. She’ll be getting off the plane in just a minute.

    —and begin my passage into the man’s world of The Tribe.

    A hand came to rest on Tucker Renfro’s shoulder. It’s your sister. She’s here!

    Tucker pressed his nose against the glass and looked one more time at the stuffed grizzly bear inside the large showcase. Travelers moved around him on the red concourse of the Spokane International Airport as if he were a rock in a stream. The glass eyes of the bear stared out at them in fierce defiance. Tucker felt the same way. He blew a circle of breath onto the bear’s glass case.

    The hand on his shoulder squeezed gently. C’mon, son, let’s go welcome Olivia to the Northwest.

    Tucker turned and looked up at his father. The two mirrored one another in many ways: brown hair, high cheekbones, slender build, and a particular look in the green eyes, as if often thinking of distant places, other things. Father and son. Most people saw it right away. But, Dad, I don’t even know her, Tucker said.

    Duane Renfro tried to smile. That’s the whole point. Your mother and I never intended to let things go … He stopped and looked down the concourse toward gate three, then took a deep breath. … go this long. Seven years is seven too many. You were only four when we split up. Olivia was only two.

    Tucker stuck his hands down deep in his pockets. In the left one the small piece of cedar root he had carved into an Indian chief’s head slipped comfortably into his hand, as if it had always been there. He ran his fingers across the face, then back over the war bonnet of carved eagle feathers. He had spent hours working on it. Why change things now, Dad? he asked. We get along OK by ourselves.

    An instant of pain flashed across his father’s green eyes. Just because your mother and I are divorced, that doesn’t erase the fact that you and Olivia are brother and sister. She will be able to start the school year with you here—her in fourth grade and you in sixth. Be thankful that your mother and I have finally been able to agree on something and bring you two together, even if only until Thanksgiving.

    Tucker turned and pressed his nose against the glass case again. A brass plaque was mounted at the bear’s feet: WORLD RECORD CLASS GRIZZLY BEAR. SHOT BY SCOTT GRAHAM OF SPOKANE, WASHINGTON, IN BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, 1988. TAXIDERMY BY KNOPP BROTHERS. HUNT ARRANGED BY WORLDWIDE TROPHY OUTFITTERS, SPOKANE, WASHINGTON.

    They’ve opened the door at gate three, Tucker, his father’s voice came over his shoulder. Please try to be open-minded and give it a chance. According to your mother it was Olivia who first brought this up. She really wants to be here and to get to know you. It probably wouldn’t be happening if she hadn’t insisted.

    Tucker looked once more into the fierce glass eyes of the grizzly bear. I have stalked the bear as it sleeps. By completing this test of bravery, I begin my passage into the man’s world of The Tribe—

    There she is, Tucker. His father’s excited voice cut in once again. Just like in the picture your mother sent. I can see her coming up the ramp!

    —and become a warrior.

    2

    You want to play Slug Bug?

    The face that leaned over the backseat of Duane Renfro’s white station wagon had a smile on it that stretched from ear to ear. Large brown eyes sparkled. Sandy blond hair was cut straight across the front into bangs, the rest pulled back into a ponytail that fell onto a pink-and-lime-green T-shirt with a picture on it of two elephants riding a surfboard.

    Tucker ignored his sister, keeping his eyes on the line of white dashes down the middle of the road that stretched out ahead toward Sandpoint, Idaho.

    It’s a great game, really, Olivia insisted. Every time you see one of those little old Volkswagen Beetle cars you yell ‘Slug Bug!’ and the one who yells it first gets to slug the other players in the arm. Mom says she used to play it with Uncle Stanley when she was a girl.

    Duane Renfro laughed softly and looked in the rearview mirror at his daughter. "It sure is good to have you

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