Looking toward fall...
it's just over 5 weeks until my new book releases!
I was on vacation last week. It was lovely to spend a (mostly) quiet week at the lake, especially as I always feel a bit sentimental as the calendar turns from July to August. As I wrote about in this recent blog on the Reformed Journal, I’m a summer person. Summer in Michigan always feels extra magical to me, like a gift of grace after enduring the winter’s cold, dark months.
As someone who has worked in education for nearly two decades, August is when we flip not just the calendar, but our minds. It’s time to prepare for the upcoming school year, to pick up that stack of pedagogical books we told ourselves we’d read over the summer, to move with intention into the newness that fall will offer.
Although it’s bittersweet to see the sun setting earlier each night and the blooms of my annuals start to grow weary, this coming fall holds extra excitement for me as my first book, Enemies in the Orchard: A World War 2 Novel in Verse, is set to release on September 12.
This first seeds of this book were planted back in 1998, when as a college student in one of my first creative writing classes, I interviewed my dad for a project on the history of my family orchard.
Twenty-five years ago, I sat at my grandma’s dining room table with a small tape recorder, and listened as my dad recounted dozens of tales set on what we called Grandpa’s Orchard. Though, technically, my grandpa managed but never owned the 200 acres of apples (plus 50-some acres of peaches, cherries, and plums) we called ours. My dad and his siblings were raised on that farm, and in many ways, I was, too. It’s impossible to separate our family history from the trees that are now bulldozed, from the acres of rolling land where we once picked apples, took tractor rides perched on Grandpa’s lap, and built forts and played with our cousins.
But what stuck with me was one particular story my dad told me: that during World War II, a decade before Grandpa and his young family came to live on the farm, German POWs had been hired to pick apples.
That seed is the basis for the hours of research and reading that bloomed into Enemies in the Orchard, and though it’s a book written for young readers, I am hopeful readers of all ages will be captivated by the question that first propelled me forward—how are we changed when our enemy is not a fictional villain hundreds of miles away, but someone we can look in the eye?
I’m humbled by the reviews and reactions of my first readers, especially those who have been been my mentors and teachers such as Lesléa Newman, Silas House, and Edie Hemingway. These kind words from my college poetry teacher, Jack Ridl touched me deeply:
“Seldom do we discover a book both timely and timeless. Dana Vanderlugt’s incomparable Enemies in the Orchard is not only such a work, but also evidence of the improbable—the formulation of friendship between those commonly perceived not only as incompatible but as given enemies. I think of Huck and Jim: timely/timeless. Thanks to Vanderlugt’s courageous heart and luminous writing we will never forget the understanding forged across the ubiquity of hate by 13-year-old Claire who has lost her rambunctious early teens to working the family orchards and Karl, a young prisoner of war hired to help who reveals the inconceivable, a German soldier who holds a humane heart. We follow unexpected kindnesses, misunderstandings, and heartaches, while we daily walk and work with them. Timely? One has to be living in isolation not to recognize such.Timeless? How can kindness ever outwear its need? Based on a true story, Vanderlugt’s ability to combine exhausting research with an abundantly empathic imagination is astonishing. In the words of Claire: “Germans . . ./ will soon invade Daddy’s trees”, and of Karl: “I want to . . . / show this woman and child/ my empty hands.” Be prepared to ‘Never forget.’”
It’s now just over five weeks til release day, and if you’d be so kind, I’d love to humbly ask a favor:
Would you help spread the word about this book?
Enemies in the Orchard is currently available for preorder from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or your favorite independent bookstore. It’s also available on Audible as an audiobook.
I’d love if you’d request the book at your local library! Some libraries have an online form for this, or you can mention it to a librarian on your next visit.
Here is a listing of my current scheduled events for fall, with more to be added in the coming weeks. I hope to see you many of you person!
If you are out of town, let me know, and I’d be happy to sign a bookplate, and mail it to you! Schuler Books in Grand Rapids, who is hosting my Book Launch, will also be able to send you a signed copy after Sept. 12.
I’m now booking School Visits for fall! Please click here for more information — or feel free to reach out to me directly. Even if you are outside of Michigan, I’d love to Zoom with classes or book clubs using my book. I did several school visits last spring and had a great response — as a former 8th grade English teacher, I love to work directly with students!
A Teacher’s Guide that soon be available to download. We expect Enemies in the Orchard to be a great choice for classroom study or book clubs, especially those that are focused on historical fiction or WW2 history.
Once you read, it is extremely helpful to me if you write a quick review on Goodreads (thanks to all of the early readers who have already done this!), as well as on Amazon, if you purchased from there.
Thank you! The support of my friends, family, colleagues, and readers has meant so much to me along this journey. It’s been my lifelong dream to publish a book—and to publish this particular book, one that holds so much personal significance—feels especially meaningful. I’m grateful.
