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Sketcher
Nine-year-old "Skid" Beaumont's family is stuck in the mud. Following his father's decision to relocate and build a new home, based on a drunken vision that New Orleans would rapidly expand eastwards into the wetlands as a result of the Seventies' oil boom, Skid and his brothers grow up in a swampy area of Louisiana. But the constructions stop short, the dream fizzles out, and the Beaumonts find themselves sinking in a soggy corner of 1980s Cold War America. As things on the home front get more complicated, Skid learns of his mother's alleged magic powers and vaguely remembers some eerie stories surrounding his elder brother Frico. These, as well as early events that Skid saw with his own eyes, convince him that Frico has a gift to fix things by simply sketching them. For the next few years, Skid's self-appointed mission to convince his brother to join him in his lofty plan to change their family's luck and the world they live in will lead to even more mystery and high drama in the swamp.
- GenresFiction
300 pages, Paperback
First published May 8, 2013
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56 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 2, 2018
Skid lives with his family in a swampy area of Louisianna. What I liked about this story is how well the southern accent has been written.
June 20, 2015
This book is amazing, and that’s an understatement.
I picked it up on a whim, didn’t read the back, had no clue who the author was, so all I went on was the cover. A crafty-looking kid sitting beside a blue and red striped wall, with a white crocodile drawn on it. And the title: Sketcher.
Three things happened almost instantly when I started reading. One: I fell in love with Skid. He’s an adorable rascal with a sharp mind and big dreams. Two: You want to live in the swamp with this family. Don’t get me wrong, it’s horrible. So many things go wrong, and the standard of living is shabby and dangerous, but there’s so much adventure! Realistic adventure that makes you want to join in, or (as it’s a book, and joining in isn’t an option) climb in a tree with your mates to have secret meetings about ‘important stuff’. Three: You believe in the impossible. Not because your life so far has given you reason to, but because Skid believes it, and the way he let’s you in on the ‘magic his brother can do’ makes you believe it too.
Then, while reading, a personal mystery slowly unfolds. There are tiny clues, all linked to the origins of Skid’s mom.
To quote Pa Campbell:
“Now, I’m not sure I should be tellin’ you this, but your mother’s from San Tainos, son. She was born there.
The gods made that place special.”
After finding out that Skid’s slightly different hair structure with its slight red glow is also linked to his mother’s origins, and reading that his mom tends to speak Patois on occasion (when she’s very angry, I think) I decided to Google ‘San Tainos’. What do you know, the Taίno were the principal inhabitants of, among other places, Jamaica. Skid just might be Jamaican – like me. Then again he could also be Cuban or from Haiti, but still I felt even more connected to the story, and experienced a greater interest in my own roots. The thing is, you feel Skid search for answers. Not even so much to the obvious questions of why his family lives in the swamps, why is brother has a gift for drawing that gets him out of doing chores like the rest of the siblings, or even why his mom is so devoted to Christianity but knows exactly how to deal with ‘blood-letters’ sent to their home. Skid seems to take all those things in stride, the thing that seems to drive him forward is the desire to uncover the big secret that everyone seems to be tiptoeing around. He knows his mom can protect their home from ill-wishers and he knows his brother can alter reality by the things he draws but he doesn’t know why everyone is acting like they don’t know. Everyone but Pa Campbell, that is…
This book, by, moved me on so many levels I can’t try and explain. But magic hasn’t been incorporated into a book so smoothly and convincingly, leaving me yearning to be a part of its great adventure, since Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon. Five out of five stars!
I picked it up on a whim, didn’t read the back, had no clue who the author was, so all I went on was the cover. A crafty-looking kid sitting beside a blue and red striped wall, with a white crocodile drawn on it. And the title: Sketcher.
Three things happened almost instantly when I started reading. One: I fell in love with Skid. He’s an adorable rascal with a sharp mind and big dreams. Two: You want to live in the swamp with this family. Don’t get me wrong, it’s horrible. So many things go wrong, and the standard of living is shabby and dangerous, but there’s so much adventure! Realistic adventure that makes you want to join in, or (as it’s a book, and joining in isn’t an option) climb in a tree with your mates to have secret meetings about ‘important stuff’. Three: You believe in the impossible. Not because your life so far has given you reason to, but because Skid believes it, and the way he let’s you in on the ‘magic his brother can do’ makes you believe it too.
Then, while reading, a personal mystery slowly unfolds. There are tiny clues, all linked to the origins of Skid’s mom.
To quote Pa Campbell:
“Now, I’m not sure I should be tellin’ you this, but your mother’s from San Tainos, son. She was born there.
The gods made that place special.”
After finding out that Skid’s slightly different hair structure with its slight red glow is also linked to his mother’s origins, and reading that his mom tends to speak Patois on occasion (when she’s very angry, I think) I decided to Google ‘San Tainos’. What do you know, the Taίno were the principal inhabitants of, among other places, Jamaica. Skid just might be Jamaican – like me. Then again he could also be Cuban or from Haiti, but still I felt even more connected to the story, and experienced a greater interest in my own roots. The thing is, you feel Skid search for answers. Not even so much to the obvious questions of why his family lives in the swamps, why is brother has a gift for drawing that gets him out of doing chores like the rest of the siblings, or even why his mom is so devoted to Christianity but knows exactly how to deal with ‘blood-letters’ sent to their home. Skid seems to take all those things in stride, the thing that seems to drive him forward is the desire to uncover the big secret that everyone seems to be tiptoeing around. He knows his mom can protect their home from ill-wishers and he knows his brother can alter reality by the things he draws but he doesn’t know why everyone is acting like they don’t know. Everyone but Pa Campbell, that is…
This book, by, moved me on so many levels I can’t try and explain. But magic hasn’t been incorporated into a book so smoothly and convincingly, leaving me yearning to be a part of its great adventure, since Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon. Five out of five stars!
October 6, 2013
Sketcher is a really interesting book in that I have conflicting thoughts about it. It’s not structured in the usual way – there’s no big building of drama into a crescendo, but lots of events both big and small spread throughout the book. There’s also no definite answers spelled out for the reader and it’s rather sad at times. I suppose that it’s more representative of real life – sometimes a lot of big things happen, sometimes there’s not much happening.
The book is set on the outskirts of New Orleans in the early 1980s. Skid Beaumont’s father thought that he was sitting on a winning lottery ticket as the city began to expand. But then everything slowed and construction ended. The Beaumonts live in a shack on the edge of the bayou, doing without things Skid’s classmates take for granted – electricity and television. However, the Beaumont boys make their own fun, holding conferences in the tamarind tree, buying lollies at the local store (where Skid’s crush lives) and playing on the CB radio. Skid’s convinced that his brother Frico has the ability to sketch things and make them better – or worse. He’s continually trying to get Frico to draw things to improve their lives, but Frico mainly refuses. While this is happening, a crush on his teacher gets Skid sent to a psychologist and then his father is found in a delicate situation with another woman. This is where things start to get wilder, as local magic tries to take hold. Then there’s a sinkhole, a crocodile, fracking and everything gets a bit crazy…
One of the things I liked about Sketcher is the way it’s written. It reads like Skid is sitting next to you, talking as though you’re friends. It’s casual but endearing as you feel you’re right in there with the Beaumont boys. I thought it was very clever how Skid’s language changed subtly as he got older (less slang and better insight into the overall picture). Sometimes I did have to read back over a paragraph or two due to the slang, but as you fall into the rhythm of the novel it gets a lot easier.
Another thing to marvel at is the things the Beaumont boys go through in the space of this book – deaths, possible murders and explosions are just a few of the things going on. While I originally thought this would be about Frico’s alleged sketching powers, they were somewhat put to the side as things heated up and real life events took over. Was this to show Skid that some things were beyond his family’s control? Or just to demonstrate the little power individuals have?
Although it took me a little while to settle into, I did like Sketcher and I find myself wondering what Skid would be like as an adult.
Thank you to Bloomsbury Sydney for the review copy of this book.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
The book is set on the outskirts of New Orleans in the early 1980s. Skid Beaumont’s father thought that he was sitting on a winning lottery ticket as the city began to expand. But then everything slowed and construction ended. The Beaumonts live in a shack on the edge of the bayou, doing without things Skid’s classmates take for granted – electricity and television. However, the Beaumont boys make their own fun, holding conferences in the tamarind tree, buying lollies at the local store (where Skid’s crush lives) and playing on the CB radio. Skid’s convinced that his brother Frico has the ability to sketch things and make them better – or worse. He’s continually trying to get Frico to draw things to improve their lives, but Frico mainly refuses. While this is happening, a crush on his teacher gets Skid sent to a psychologist and then his father is found in a delicate situation with another woman. This is where things start to get wilder, as local magic tries to take hold. Then there’s a sinkhole, a crocodile, fracking and everything gets a bit crazy…
One of the things I liked about Sketcher is the way it’s written. It reads like Skid is sitting next to you, talking as though you’re friends. It’s casual but endearing as you feel you’re right in there with the Beaumont boys. I thought it was very clever how Skid’s language changed subtly as he got older (less slang and better insight into the overall picture). Sometimes I did have to read back over a paragraph or two due to the slang, but as you fall into the rhythm of the novel it gets a lot easier.
Another thing to marvel at is the things the Beaumont boys go through in the space of this book – deaths, possible murders and explosions are just a few of the things going on. While I originally thought this would be about Frico’s alleged sketching powers, they were somewhat put to the side as things heated up and real life events took over. Was this to show Skid that some things were beyond his family’s control? Or just to demonstrate the little power individuals have?
Although it took me a little while to settle into, I did like Sketcher and I find myself wondering what Skid would be like as an adult.
Thank you to Bloomsbury Sydney for the review copy of this book.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
December 13, 2013
"Sketcher" is about a family growing up in a one-room shack in the swamps just outside New O'lins during the 1980s. That family is made up of four boys, a mum from the Caribbean and a white dad who likes to get drunk. Later the dad walks out.
The narrator is the youngest of the boys, Skid. Straight from the opening sentence you get into his voice, his accent and his talkative nature coming out - "Well to begin with lemme tell you my pops is the reason we grew up in that swamp." His brothers are Tony, Doug and Frico. Frico is the sketcher with brilliant drawing skills that win a lot of praise.
Skid he can see all isn't well in the family with its troubles growing up in that swamp. So "I got to thinkin' that the way to get things back in shape in my family, and make them have some respect for people other than Frico Beaumont, was for me to get the city that had been sleeping for years to start movin' into the swamps again."
Now the way he is going to do that is to make use of the Sketcher's skills. "That boy was more than artistic. He had somethin' in his left hand, a strange power to fix things with a pencil." Like "when Frico was four, he sketched a picture of a cat that had a broken leg. And the cat got better and walked away."
But is this just Skid's imagination or is it real? His mother's former life as a hoodoo user until "it was time to stop all that mojo-conjuring" adds kudos to his thoughts as do other incidents. "Skid, your old lady is a witch and your brother is a wizard."
Anyway as Skid and the family grow older he tries to persuade Frico to put his left hand to good use to bring in the city, but Frico is reluctant. That is until Skid hears about a State of Louisiana State Fair Competition, where the first prize is $5,000, with a theme of "New Orleans 2020. A vision of tomorrow."
He convinces Frico to enter and Frico does, although not winning, but "Frico's art entry was really a conjuration." And so Skid just waits. "This place was so low it could only get better, and any day now would be the new beginning."
However things don't go to plan as Skid realises at the end because the Sketcher had other ideas. "The guy's a genius. You can't beat a genius."
The way of speaking, the swamps setting and the hoodoo reminded me of the Disney film The Princess and the Frog, although this is more than a cartoon. Good book with a cast of characters that you grow up with all told in a good voice.
The narrator is the youngest of the boys, Skid. Straight from the opening sentence you get into his voice, his accent and his talkative nature coming out - "Well to begin with lemme tell you my pops is the reason we grew up in that swamp." His brothers are Tony, Doug and Frico. Frico is the sketcher with brilliant drawing skills that win a lot of praise.
Skid he can see all isn't well in the family with its troubles growing up in that swamp. So "I got to thinkin' that the way to get things back in shape in my family, and make them have some respect for people other than Frico Beaumont, was for me to get the city that had been sleeping for years to start movin' into the swamps again."
Now the way he is going to do that is to make use of the Sketcher's skills. "That boy was more than artistic. He had somethin' in his left hand, a strange power to fix things with a pencil." Like "when Frico was four, he sketched a picture of a cat that had a broken leg. And the cat got better and walked away."
But is this just Skid's imagination or is it real? His mother's former life as a hoodoo user until "it was time to stop all that mojo-conjuring" adds kudos to his thoughts as do other incidents. "Skid, your old lady is a witch and your brother is a wizard."
Anyway as Skid and the family grow older he tries to persuade Frico to put his left hand to good use to bring in the city, but Frico is reluctant. That is until Skid hears about a State of Louisiana State Fair Competition, where the first prize is $5,000, with a theme of "New Orleans 2020. A vision of tomorrow."
He convinces Frico to enter and Frico does, although not winning, but "Frico's art entry was really a conjuration." And so Skid just waits. "This place was so low it could only get better, and any day now would be the new beginning."
However things don't go to plan as Skid realises at the end because the Sketcher had other ideas. "The guy's a genius. You can't beat a genius."
The way of speaking, the swamps setting and the hoodoo reminded me of the Disney film The Princess and the Frog, although this is more than a cartoon. Good book with a cast of characters that you grow up with all told in a good voice.
June 20, 2013
Convinced that one day New Orleans will spread to the east, Aldrich Beaumont moved his family out to the, waiting for the city to catch up with them. It never happens. The story is narrated by the youngest of the family, Skid, and through him we get to see the highs and lows (mostly lows) of growing up in the swamps. The four boys of the family deal with life in their own way. Eldest, Tony, is the smart one, always ready with a logical explanation for everything. Doug's answer to everything is money and Frico is the artistic one. And Skid, well, he truly believes that Frico has a special ability that can rescue them all.
Initially, this book took a bit of getting in to due to the colloquial style of writing, but a short way in it flows nicely and really adds to the feel of the story and the essence of the characters. The characters themselves are well written and before long you find yourself really caring what happens to them. Obviously Skid is the one you grow attached to the most but there's a great cast of supporting characters from the boys' friends to the neighbours, Ma and Pa Campbell. The plot moves a nice pace and there's a couple of twists that you don't see coming until they hit you which keeps the story fresh and unpredictable.
Initially, this book took a bit of getting in to due to the colloquial style of writing, but a short way in it flows nicely and really adds to the feel of the story and the essence of the characters. The characters themselves are well written and before long you find yourself really caring what happens to them. Obviously Skid is the one you grow attached to the most but there's a great cast of supporting characters from the boys' friends to the neighbours, Ma and Pa Campbell. The plot moves a nice pace and there's a couple of twists that you don't see coming until they hit you which keeps the story fresh and unpredictable.
April 14, 2013
I enjoyed this book, received as an ARC form Lovereading, it is astonishingly adept as a debut offering, the strongest character is the first person naarrator, Skid, who lives with his 3 brothers on the edge of a swamp by New Orleans. It is an intense mediatation on the power of dreams, ritual and mythological tropes (hoodoo,religion etc).
I cna understand that people may find this hard going or tire of the colloquial speech, but although the beginning was a struggle to get into,by the end of the book I was glad I persevered.
I cna understand that people may find this hard going or tire of the colloquial speech, but although the beginning was a struggle to get into,by the end of the book I was glad I persevered.
June 4, 2017
Wow! I normally save 5 stars for classics that I love or deeply moving books!
But this book was just pure entertainment. The story had me intrigued, the characters were full of surprises and it was so well planned and thought out that I felt like I was on an adventure!
But this book was just pure entertainment. The story had me intrigued, the characters were full of surprises and it was so well planned and thought out that I felt like I was on an adventure!
November 16, 2013
about a young boy in the swampland near new orleans. Quite a strange book and I'm not sure I really enjoyed it but i did want to see what happened.
July 4, 2014
not the normal genre I would go for but a good story none the less and I love the authentic southern language used, gave more depth the the writing.
October 13, 2014
I was hooked and could not put this novel down. Can't wait to get the next book and follow our protagonists escapades as the family leave the familiarness of the swamp.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews