47 Hours and 52 Minutes of Terror

When the patriarch of a family dies very unexpectedly, the family, with all of its dysfunction and drama comes together to mourn their loss. When this family involves 3 children ages 9,9 and 7 who don't understand the family dynamics and want to escape the chaos of the Ashton family home, this story takes a very unexpected turn...

The title of this book is 47 Hours and 52 Minutes of Terror. The author is my sister, Elizabeth Fentem. We chose this book as an example of contemporary realistic fiction. Books in this genre "include stories about animals and people that could actually exist along with events that could actually happen in today's world or in the recent past". One of the important values of contemporary realistic fiction is that it "offers readers a window into the human condition through reading about how characters cope with issues and challenges in their lives". This book definitely fits both of those definitions.

The characters that the author of this book used are definitely based on actual people. For the most part, they are credible and multidimensional and readers of this book who actually know the family it was based on will find humor in the personalities of the characters seen through the eyes of  the young author. The main characters of this story, also known as the protagonists, would be Lexie, Aaron and Grace. Many other characters are mentioned in the book. They add to the story, but are not the main focus. There are also several different antagonists in this story. Their names are never mentioned; only how they antagonize the main characters.

The plot of this book does develop logically with the "events evolving plausibly from what has previously occurred". The children get themselves lost in the woods and have to overcome the elements in order to survive. This book is a great example of person against person conflict as well as person against nature conflict. The plot is definitely not predictable.

The author of this story wrote in the forward, "It is the story of how a tragedy, combined with a horrifying few days of extreme danger and exciting adventure forever changed the way the youngest members of the youngest generation would mesh for the rest of their lives. It also changed the way a large and detached family would interact for generations to come." This is the general theme of the book is focused on the choices the children made to go on a walk through a place they knew they weren't supposed to be, and the frightening adventures that followed as they tried to find their way home.

The setting of the book is Softfur, Oklahoma. This is a make believe place based on a very real place. Having been many times to the places this story is based on, I can tell you that the author did a great job with the details and descriptions she chose of the characters and the settings.

This book shifts the point of view at different times throughout the story to different characters. It is almost always a first person point of view, it just changes from character to character as the story progresses.

Pick up your copy of the book on Amazon to see if the children ever make it back home and how the dynamics and relationships in the Ashton family are changed.

We think that this book would be great to use towards the end of the 5th grade year. It could be used as an introduction to a writing contest. The intent would be to inspire the students to do their best work for a culminating assignment and show them that children CAN have their works published. It would be a good fit for standards ELACC5W3 as well as 4,5 and 6. The students could vote on the best author in the class, and the teacher could do just like this author's teacher did, and submit the best entry to a publishing company.