YONDER
Grades 6 and Up
Ali Standish
HarperCollins, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06298-568-2
368 pp.
Summary
Hero! That’s what everyone called Jack Bailey the day he dove into flood waters to rescue twin toddlers. To Danny Timmons, Jack Bailey seems fearless - always brave and kind despite losing his mother at an early age and living with an abusive father. When Jack, beaten and injured, is taken in by Danny’s parents, he regales Danny with tales of Yonder - a land of peace and plenty where rainbow-colored jewel birds fill the sky. When Jack goes missing, Danny searches for answers, suspecting everyone from the town bully to Jack’s father and even the Town Sheriff of hiding the truth. With Jack gone and Danny’s father off to fight in World War II, Danny must find his own strength to face injustice – and to form his own opinions of what it means to be a hero.
Curriculum Connections
History
Even Americans who weren’t called to fight in the Second World War experienced drastic changes to their families and livelihoods. Explore what life was like for families on the American (or Vermont) home front. What advances or setbacks did we experience as a nation? How did we pull together? What were divisive factors during this time?
See:
Then Again: Vermonters and the war effort
Language Arts/Creative Writing
When we meet Danny, Jack has just gone missing. The story Danny tells jumps through time, as he looks for clues in his own memory to find where Jack might have gone. Danny’s memories, written in italic font, help to fill in the story that led up to the desperate moment of Jack’s disappearance.
Try your hand at something similar!
Write a story in past and present tense. Start your story in the present, describing a fraught moment when you needed to make a tough choice. Then take a jump back in time! How does a past experience influence or guide the decision you make in the here and now?
Discussion Questions
What is the definition of the word yonder? How does the title resonate as a theme of the story?
Yonder is set in Appalachia during the Second World War. How does what’s happening in the war overseas affect daily life in Foggy Gap, North Carolina?
Danny comes to the conclusion that “courage starts at home.” Think about characters like Lou, Jack, Mrs. Musgrave, Danny, and his mother. Can you point to a time when each character made a choice they regretted or acted out of fear or anger? How about a time when each character showed courage?
Danny is shocked that the librarian who sends him a birthday card each year refused the Musgraves entrance to the library. How does this information change Danny’s world view and his impression of the town he lives in?
If you were Lou, would you forgive Danny for telling Bruce that her brother had run away to escape the front lines? Why or why not?
At the beginning of chapter 39, Danny says he thought that he and Jack had courage in common, when what they actually had in common was fear. What does he mean?
On page 144, Danny’s mother tells him that yonder isn’t a place, it’s a direction. She means this literally, but by the end of the story, Danny decides that the statement was apt in more ways than one. Can you think of more than one way that this sentence could be interpreted?
Think about the last image Danny has of Jack. What was Jack doing? How does this relate to the theme of the story?
On page 329, Danny states that “Courage takes practice.” What does he mean?
In the first pages of Yonder (see p. 6), Danny states: “Even now, after all this time, I’m still trying to figure out which one this is. A hero’s story, or a story without a hero.”
Having finished the book, which do you think is true?
Author Online
Ali Standish grew up playing in the woods in North Carolina. She has a master’s degree in Children’s Literature from the University of Cambridge and is now back in North Carolina, where she lives with her husband, son, and dog, and spends here time writing, reading, working in the garden, or baking in the kitchen. Hear a YouTube interview with Ali about Yonder and check out the Educator Guide to accompany the book.
Companion Books
A Place to Hang the Moon
Kate Albus (Margaret Ferguson Books, 2021)
Set in England during World War II, William, Edmund, and Anna, left homeless when their grandmother died, have a plan of their own to find a family – but finding on isn’t easy.
Flight of the Puffin
Ann Braden (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2021)
Libby and Jack in rural Vermont and Vincent in Seattle are linked by encouraging postcards which help all to confront their problems – notably those of Jack who makes an inadvertent comment that entangles him in a community transphobic controversy.
The Next Great Paulie Fink
Ali Benjamin (Little, Brown, 2019)
When Caitlyn Bean arrives at the Mitchell School, she’s terrified that she won’t fit in – until she’s given the role of finding a replacement for now-gone class prankster Paulie Fink, and finds the courage to try to be her own best self.
The War That Saved My Life
Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (Dial, 2015)
Ten-year-old Ada, who has a club foot, has never been allowed to leave her abusive mother’s apartment. When her younger brother is evacuated from London to escape the World War II, Ada sneaks out and goes with him – and begins to forge a whole new life.
Wolf Hollow
Lauren Wolk (Dutton, 2016)
When manipulative bully Betty shows up in Annabelle’s small Pennsylvania town, Annabelle must find the courage to confront her – and to try to protect Toby, a reclusive World War I veteran.
Brave Like That
Lindsey Stoddard (HarperCollins, 2020)
Cyrus Olson is expected to follow in his football-hero father’s footsteps – but instead he finds his own kind of courage as he stands up for a stray dog and a bullied boy at school.
Maniac Magee
Jerry Spinelli (Little, Brown, 1990)
In this Newbery-winning classic, orphaned Jeffrey Magee runs away from his aunt and uncle – and with support from new friends, finds himself helping to breach the divide between the two halves of the racially separated town of Two Mills.
The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle
Leslie Connor (Katherine Tegen Books, 2018)
The biggest kid in his class, Mason Buttle, who struggles with learning disabilities, has been implicated in the death of his friend Benny and the disappearance of his new friend, Calvin. Mason’s honesty and kindness, however, make for a special kind of bravery.
When Stars Are Scattered
Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed (Dial, 2020)
Omar and younger non-verbal brother Hassan have ended up in a refugee camp in Kenya after the death of their father in Somalia’s civil war. This is the graphic-novel account of their six years there, where their own courage and unexpected support from others helps them to keep hoping and survive.