Author Description

This story does not begin on the day Spring-baby Westbay throws a rock at Amen: a simple-looking donkey who knew Adam and Noah, Abraham and Moses, Jesus Christ, the Apostle John, Saint Francis of Assisi. Nor does the story begin when Spring-baby¿s father jilts her by dying far away from home and rebuke. The story begins in the beginning ¿ when death itself comes into the world and initiates its nefarious plot against Spring-baby¿s dad amongst countless others. Gadly Plain follows the struggle of a twelve-year-old girl as she grapples with one of life¿s most mind-wrenching questions: Is death really the end? After being abandoned with her paternal grandparents in rural Kentucky by her newly-widowed mother, Spring-baby Westbay strikes up a friendship with Chirp Vanhoosen, a dim-witted suburban farmer who claims that his charge, Amen, has never known death. Could this be true? Are there messengers of hope among us, four-legged though they be? In a series of visits to the barn behind her grandparents¿ house, Spring-baby listens and learns as Chirp Vanhoosen relays the tale of a donkey who is the yes to each of these questions. Terry Kay, author of To Dance with the White Dog (film version starring Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn), says, ¿If you are seeking a story that will enchant you ¿ try J. Michael Dew¿s splendidly-written Gadly Plain.¿ The story accomplishes something really daring in the face of so much heartache and confusion in modern times: it points toward real and lasting hope.