Review: What's it like to be an adventurous kid once again?
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 15, 2013
"The Footprint," by Nathanael Green, is a charming, heart-thumping adventure story written for adults who want to take a brief literary trip back into the magic of childhood. It's delightful and effective. I enjoyed it thoroughly.It's a story about a young boy who discovers animal tracks in the woods. They're from some giant two-toed creature. What type of animal would leave tracks like that? The boy's imagination runs wild. Naturally, he immediately is convinced that the animal is some type of dinosaur! He's consumed by curiosity and goes into the woods alone to find out.The writing is simple, direct, and sparse, yet somehow delightfully robust. The story is brief, only fifteen pages. There is nothing extraneous. Every word counts. Every word propels the plot forward and keeps the reader engaged in the action. The author uses a lot of dynamic prose, for example: gentle summer breezes are quickly transformed into strong summer winds that whip fallen leaves against the boy's face while ferns dance and grab at his bare knees. You get the drift? There is a lot of action in the description. This effectively puts the reader right into the middle of the story. You feel like you're there with the boy...perhaps even that you are the boy.Yes, I definitely recommend the story. It made me smile and brought back many lovely memories of my own youth.