ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Sometimes a hike in the woods can do wonders for your soul. That's a lesson that seventh grader Finn Connelly has to learn the hard way. He's at the center of a new middle grade novel titled "The Trouble With Heroes" by Kate Messner. Andrew Limbong, host of NPR's Book of the Day podcast, caught up with the author - where else? - on a hike in the woods.
ANDREW LIMBONG, BYLINE: We met up in a little wooded area by a lake in Baltimore. It's nothing like the Adirondack Mountains Kate Messner is used to, but in the middle of a book tour...
KATE MESSNER: Yeah, I mean, I need fresh air, and I need trees and sky and all that stuff.
LIMBONG: While we talked, Messner repeatedly said that she needed this. She needed to be out here surrounded by old rocks and dirt. It's what separates her from Finn, the main character of her new book, "The Trouble With Heroes."
MESSNER: Finn doesn't know it's what he needs. You know, he's a kid who has lost his dad two years before the book starts.
LIMBONG: His dad was a New York City firefighter who made a pretty heroic save during 9/11, and he died during those early days of COVID. Now Finn and his mom live way upstate New York in Lake Placid, in the Adirondacks.
MESSNER: He's angry. He's failing seventh grade. He won't do what he calls the stupid poetry project, which is to complete 20 poems on the topic of heroes. And he just kind of explodes and vandalizes the cemetery, kicks over a gravestone that belonged to one of the first women to hike all 46 of the Adirondack high peaks.
LIMBONG: In real life, people in the Adirondacks take their hiking very seriously. To climb all 46 mountains is to become a 46er.
MESSNER: You climb them all. It's 350-some miles and 65,000 feet of elevation gain, and then they give you a little patch (laughter).
LIMBONG: All of that - you could have just...
MESSNER: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
LIMBONG: ...Bought the patch.
MESSNER: Yeah. No, you can't buy the patch.
LIMBONG: Oh.
MESSNER: That's the thing. You're not allowed to buy the patch unless you're a 46er.
LIMBONG: So no stolen valor.
MESSNER: No cheating. No stolen valor.
LIMBONG: Like I said, they take their hiking very seriously. Anyway, in the book, as punishment for the vandalism, Finn has to become a 46er. And while he's at it, he has to finish that poetry project on the topic of heroes, which is what the book is - a collection of Finn's poetry, struggling with these big emotions he has about living up to his father's ghost and why he can't seem to just be a regular kid like his friends. We took a break from walking, sat on a big rock, and Messner read one of the poems.
MESSNER: (Reading) When somebody you love does something terrible, you're supposed to be shocked. You're supposed to say, this is so unlike him. But no one's looking at me that way. They're just sitting calmly, like I'm the wind blowing everything around because that's what wind is supposed to do. It makes me stop mid-gust.
LIMBONG: On top of the usual aches and pains of growing up, this is a middle grade book dealing with 9/11, COVID, death, grief, alcoholism. It's also funny. Finn is equal parts charming and annoying in the funny way kids his age tend to be.
MESSNER: We need that. We need to laugh when things are hard. My dad's critically ill right now, and I'm going to be going home soon to be with him. And my mom and my sister just sent me a picture of my sister in this big plastic hospital gown and told me it was the new fashion from Paris. And you need both. That's what it is to be a person, is to be able to hold all of that inside us at once.
LIMBONG: Since we talked, Messner's dad died. The point still stands, though. If you're laughing or crying, remembering someone or enjoying someone's company, there are worse places to be than on a walk in the woods. Andrew Limbong, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF KHRUANGBIN'S "A LOVE INTERNATIONAL") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
