Title: Henry and Anthony: The Adventures of a Canada Goose and a Homing Pigeon
Author: H. Lynn Beck
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 978-1-5320-8920-6
Genre: Children’s Fiction
Pages: 150
Synopsis
On a grassy hilled college campus, Henry was born to two loving parents who taught him to believe in the Great Goose. Henry was always a special goose, who was brought into this world with a special purpose; but no one knew what it was to be. Henry suffered an accident that launched him into the world alone, only following what he believed to be the Great Goose?s wished. He had doubts, but he continued along unknown paths with an unknown destination or purpose. Along the way, he accumulates a strange array of colleagues, including an aging Cobbler who is a Veteran from the Korean War. He also adds a homing pigeon that is lost; hence, we have a Canada goose who does not know where he is going and a Homing Pigeon that cannot find home. Together, they proceed like Don Quixote and Sancho Panza with feathers. They add a Mallard Duck named Gilbert, two aging widowed Canada geese, Andy and Leroy, and finally, three testy Russian geese, Nicholas, Dmitri, and Natasha. The bounce around the world solving problems while learning to understand and appreciate each other.
About the Author
I am a Nebraska farm boy who joined the Peace Corps. I worked with Indian farmers in El Salvador where I learned to speak Spanish fluently. I recall my Spanish teacher telling me three weeks into my first college semester that, perhaps, I should drop the course because not everyone has the ability to learn languages. Later, I spent almost a year in Nicaragua working with farmers and then 10 years in Brazil ranging from the Northest to Central to Southern. This included an arid area, a mining area and the tropical area around Cuiaba, Matto Grosso where cities grew from jungle to 25,000 people in five years.
I managed farms in Nebraska and Kansas for eight years and then moved to Illinois where, after a couple years, I started teaching at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.
This book was started when my son, a U.S. Marine, was in his second tour in Iraq during the seige of Fallujah. I died a little each day as news updated the number of wounded and killed. To escape, I created this story. I had heard of several interesting bird incidents that were funny and unlikely. I strung them together and added some details. Many of these little stories I had shared with my SIUE students in our Business Statistics course. When I felt their frustration reaching a peak as I lectured, I stopped and told them a goose story. When they laughed; they relaxed and I continued the lesson.
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