Breakin' Stones
Robert Holland
Paperback
(Frost Hollow Pubns, Nov. 5, 1999)
For most of his life Rob English, who lives on Martha’s Vineyard, has been the shortest guy he knew. Because of that, and because he couldn’t run very fast, he never played sports. And then he started to grow. In the fall of his senior year he was five foot four but by the time the story opens in March, he has grown to six foot two and is still growing. And while he may never have shone as an athlete he has an unusual talent. He can throw one stone into the air and hit with a second stone ... every single time. But now, having grown, he throws so hard that the stones don’t just collide, they shatter. He begins to wonder if maybe, just possibly, he might be able to throw a baseball with th4e same power and accuracy. That he is a left is only a bonus. And the, on e day in March when he’s fishing, he notices some strange pieces of wood washed up onto the beach and floating in the shallow water. They are pieces from a boat’s hull and they look as if they are the remains of an explosion. And then a body washes up ....