Same Planet - Different World
Ben Clabaugh
language
(Bentin Books, Dec. 4, 2013)
"Same Planet...Different World," a Mom's Choice Award winner and Transformational Author Contest finalist, is a story for kids and adults about loss, friendship, how quickly life can change, and how the quality of our lives is determined by how we choose to feel about those changes. David Fuller’s parents have uprooted him, moved him from his home and friends to a lame Midwest suburb at the beginning of summer. When a new family moves in next door with a boy David’s age, his mom forces him to hang out with the kid, Shelton—a wide-eyed weirdo who can’t catch a ball, stares at anthills for hours, and greets dogs by sniffing their butts. The word “special” comes to mind. Turns out, Shelton is as strange as he seems—but that’s not all bad. David’s ambivalence for Shelton morphs into wonder as he catches more and more glimpses of Shelton’s universe: an expansive, delicious balance of strangeness and familiarity, tension and serenity, and the ultimate oneness that entwines all things in a symphony of life. An unlikely friendship develops, and David begins to learn that whatever happens, it’s up to him to decide what it all means. But that lesson is tested when David notices men-in-black poking around, watching Shelton with telephoto lenses from inside dark, unmarked SUVs. Just how special is Shelton? What do these men want with him and what will they do to get it? The answers force David to make the most difficult decision of his life.