A Time For Evron - Softcover

Smillie, Bryan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0968951600 ISBN 13: 9780968951606

Publisher: Hushion House, 2001

Synopsis

Evron, along with eleven of his dog friends, have come to Earth from another planet far away in space. They are here to see how Earth's kids respond to them. On Evron's planet, the animals and kids talk to each other. The dogs are confidantes to the young people and so the kids talk to them about their private feelings. When they cannot relate to their parents or friends, they can always talk to their Evron friend in privacy.

Evron is mature and compassionate with the wisdom of an old sage. In this book he helps Matthew and his friends through their personal difficulties and in their day-to-day interactions with others. A number of issues arise throughout the book from first love and friendship problems, to low self-esteem, abuse, and racism. Evron is always there to guide them. Sometimes he gives direct advice; other times, he helps them work out decisions on their own.

Every kid needs an Evron by his or her side to help out.

About this title

About the Author

Bryan Smillie is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario and the University of Toronto. He is a recently retired teacher and counselor with over thirty years experience working with young people from kindergarten to pre-college and university. He continues to teach and counsel part-time. He also has his own counseling practice and has counseled part-time at KIDS HELP PHONE, a confidential counseling and referral service for kids across Canada. He lives with his family near Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

From the Inside Flap

Matthew was sitting quietly On his bed, staring at his new class picture. These pictures always came out near the middle of June, just before school ended for the summer holidays. His teacher, Mr. Sobalsky, had said that they were a sort of pictorial time capsule because they captured a split second in time when all the people were there in one group, a moment when they were all together as one. It would probably never happen again. Matt slowly studied each face. Some of the images made him smile wistfully, thinking of happy times with these people, and the fun they had shared together. Other faces made him think of the new experiences which they had added to his life. They were new friends and they had brought with them all that was part of their lives. He looked at Nadja and thought of how he never would have believed he could fall so madly for one girl. As his eyes slowly swept over the three rows of faces, their eyes were quiet as they looked back from the picture. There was no laughter, nor tears, nor anger, nor excitement emanating from the glossy photo’s surface. No one would ever know from the picture the stories in their lives. There were so many memories of the experiences he had shared with the other kids and of the moments when he and just one or two of his friends shared a secret, a thought, or an emotion. Most often no one else knew, or would ever know, about those past times together. Evron, of course, knew a lot of the time what was going on in all their lives. He had been such a great help to so many of the kids in the past year. What would they ever have done without him? Matt had thought at the time that Evron should be in the class picture too, but then realized how silly it would be to have a dog sitting there in the school photograph. And why just one dog? No one would ever believe that he was a talking dog from another galaxy in space. No one would believe that he had arrived on Earth to help its kids with problems in their day-to-day lives, or how he had helped Matthew and his friends so many times. No one would ever believe it. Matthew laughed to himself, thinking of the times Mr. Sobalsky would pause while teaching and look out from their second floor class window and comment on the hundreds of roof tops he saw surrounding the school. He would say to his students, “Just think for a moment of all the thousands of lives that are going on under those roofs. Think of the thousands of mothers, fathers, grandparents, brothers and sisters who live in this one small neighborhood alone. Think of all the emotions that are going on in their lives every day.” Matthew was thinking now of how his life and the lives of his friends must, at times, look so great to others. He was thinking of how often he had heard from adults how they wished they were kids again when life was so simple and carefree. He wished that they realized how difficult at times it was for kids, and how their lives could be just as complicated as an adult’s. He knew deep down that his mom and dad, his teachers, and most adults cared a lot about kids. He knew they wanted to help out young people like himself as much as they could. But, there were times when kids just didn’t want to share their thoughts and problems with adults. Sometimes kids just didn’t want to, or couldn’t, talk about their problems, even with their own friends. This is why Evron had been so great. He was the one friend they could all talk to. If only every kid could have an Evron! And so this is the story. It involves a young boy, Matthew, and his talking dog, Evron. Evron, along with eleven of his dog friends, came to Earth from another planet far away in space. They travelled here to see how Earth’s young people would respond to them. On Evron’s planet, the animals and the kids talk to each other. The dogs are confidantes to the young people and the kids can talk to them about their problems, their fears, and their private feelings. When they cannot relate to their parents or teachers or friends, they can always talk to their friend Evron in privacy and confidentiality. Evron is mature and caring, like a wise old sage. In this novel, he helps Matthew and his friends through their personal difficulties and in their day-to-day interactions with others. Whether they are experiencing first love, anger, fear, death, jealousy, hurt, or a host of other emotions, Evron is there to guide them. Sometimes he gives direct advice; at other times, he helps them work out the decisions on their own. This is a novel about young people growing up and dealing with life’s everyday challenges. Everyone needs an Evron by his or her side to help out.

Edition details

• Publisher: Hushion House
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0968951600
• ISBN 13: 9780968951606
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200