The Torch has been Passed

Lisa Thorson is about to finish her junior year of high school in Northern Wisconsin. She is leading her softball team all the way to the state championship and is looking forward to a summer of fishing, camping, biking, and part time jobs, including coaching younger girls in softball. Little does she know that some nefarious things are happening right in her small community of Hemlock Corners, including hazardous chemical spills, shootings, poisonings, and car accidents, that will unintentionally rope her and her Uncle Jerry into a scandalous crime that threatens the environment and their lives.

Follow along with Lisa during this last year of high school as she leads her classmates through exercises in civil disobedience in defense of their favorite teacher; all while she learns about environmental conservation, hunting, the Ojibwe language, Isle Royale (the least visited National Park in the country!), the Vietnam War, how to navigate difficult family dynamics and juggle the challenges of finding a way to pay for college.

The torch has been passed to this new generation and it is their job, in the words of Coretta Scott King, who Lisa quotes in a graduation speech, "to save this planet. As my husband Martin Luther King said, 'Every crisis has its dangers and its opportunities.' Our hope is that you who are graduating will seize the opportunity to make us a new world where peace, prosperity, and justice are secured for all people." This coming of age novel is full of outdoor adventure and mystery and will keep the reader turning the page while gaining all sorts of knowledge about science and history!