When life feels too big to understand, where do you search for answers?
When August Beck is out looking for his missing brother River, the last thing he expects to find is a monolith standing in the cornfield! August is certain the monolith and River's disappearance are connected and that aliens are to blame. But his best friend Tilly Wilson isn't so sure.
Tilly is an expert researcher. She has to be in order to run her own community newspaper. Tilly is always chasing down a good story, like her curious neighbor Mr. Starr, who makes art out of trash, but she isn't convinced August's theory is true. She's afraid he's a little too obsessed with aliens and avoiding the hard truth that little River might be gone forever.
Together they search for answers and they don't always like the explanations. Tilly learns sometimes it's better to let a story go, and August learns sometimes embracing the unknown yields surprising results. But between the monolith, changes within their own families, and a mysterious voice in the cornfield, both friends have an astonishing summer, one that teaches them to embrace mystery and never stop asking questions.
When life feels too big to understand, where do you search for answers?
When August Beck is out looking for his missing brother River, the last thing he expects to find is a monolith standing in the cornfield! August is certain the monolith and River's disappearance are connected and that aliens are to blame. But his best friend Tilly Wilson isn't so sure.
Tilly is an expert researcher. She has to be in order to run her own community newspaper. Tilly is always chasing down a good story, like her curious neighbor Mr. Starr, who makes art out of trash, but she isn't convinced August's theory is true. She's afraid he's a little too obsessed with aliens and avoiding the hard truth that little River might be gone forever.
Together they search for answers and they don't always like the explanations. Tilly learns sometimes it's better to let a story go, and August learns sometimes embracing the unknown yields surprising results. But between the monolith, changes within their own families, and a mysterious voice in the cornfield, both friends have an astonishing summer, one that teaches them to embrace mystery and never stop asking questions.
AUGUST RECEIVED TILLY’S WARNING just in time.
“Behind you! Orange dude coming at you on the left!” August spun his galaxy fighter around and shot but missed the enemy—an insurgent ship named Buttwad89.
“Don’t let him get past you, Til!”
“Copy that, Cap.” Tilly’s voice was almost as clear as it would be if they were in the same room, which August wished was the case. But Gram had been called into work and August had to stay home and watch River. Again. So, they were stuck playing Galactic Commanders online instead.
He didn’t mind hearing Tilly’s voice so close in his ears though. “Buttwad doesn’t know what’s coming for him,” he said.
River ran into the room with his skinny, freckled arms outstretched. He circled August and made terrible pew-pew-pew noises as he imitated the galaxy fighters onscreen. August could hardly hear Tilly over his little brother’s noise, even with his headset. “Riv, come on.”
August’s controller vibrated when Tilly blew the orange rebel to smithereens. Buttwad89 evaporated and the galaxy fighters came closer to victory.
“What kind of name is Buttwad anyway?” she said. “He deserved to be blown up.”
August laughed. This is what summer Saturdays were for—saving Planet Radoran from obliteration—and no one could play this game like Tilly Wilson. August hated to admit she was usually better than he was, but as co-captains, they were unstoppable. Today was the day they’d finally beat this level. Next weekend, they’d finish the entire game the way they’d started it—heroes of the universe, sitting on the couch, side by side.
River whirled around in front of August and screeched like a dying owl.
“River!” August yelled, and tried to move his brother out of the way. “Can you cut it out? You keep blocking the TV.”
“I want to go outside!” River shouted back, flopping on the couch behind August, and folding his arms over his chest in an epic pout.
“It’s pouring rain. Maybe later.” August ducked as a green enemy ship buzzed over the top of his fighter. He shot it out of the sky instantly and barrel-rolled to safety. “Why can’t I play that game with you and Tilly? You promised.” River said. “She’s my friend too!’
“Aw,” Tilly said in August’s ears. “He’s sweet. Maybe you should let him have a turn. I’ll play with him.”
“No way.” August shook his head. “He’ll ruin our score. We’ve almost beaten this level.”
August zipped around another player and caught up to Tilly’s fighter. But just as they joined together, August’s controller glitched. None of the buttons worked and his ship began to drift. “What the heck?” he said. What else could go wrong today?
“What are you doing?” Tilly asked. “Get back in form-!” Her voice cut out, but onscreen she was still flying. Meanwhile, without August, their ranking immediately began to drop.
August tapped his headset. “Til? Are you there? What the heck!” He looked at River on the couch behind him, who held up his hands in surrender.
“I didn’t touch anything! I swear!” River said. He dove under a blanket and draped it over his head like a protective hood. August smacked the controller and a bright flash, like an exploding star, lit up the screen. Suddenly it looked like his ship was in warp speed. The stars flew by, tunnelling his vision. August felt like he was being pulled right into the universe of the game. It made him dizzy. He had to close his eyes for a second. When he opened them, it all stopped and Tilly’s voice returned. “You back?” she asked. “I held them off as long as I could!”
“That was so weird. Did you get that huge flash?” August asked as he moved his fighter into the new formation, took out Max007 in the final challenge, and finally beat level twenty-six.
“Nope. Nice work, though. I thought I’d lost you,” she said.
“Me too.” August moved his ship into the spot beside Tilly’s in the winner’s circle. “Hopefully onboard computers will prevent a glitch like that once we’re really flying through space.” That was his dream. First Space Camp. Then NASA. “Have you given anymore thought to going with me to Space Camp next year?
Tilly snorted. “I think I’d rather stick to playing a video game than go to a camp that spins you around in circles until you puke.”
August thought it sounded like the greatest thing ever. Puke and all. “That’s where you and I are different,” he said. “I want to do things, and you only want to write about them.”
Tilly got quiet for a second, and then said, “Yeah, well, that’s what makes the world work. Imagine if we were all doing and no one was writing it down. No one would ever know what you’d done!”
He couldn’t argue with that. In fact, he could almost never argue with Tilly. She always made too much sense. River tossed off his blanket forcefield and jumped up and down on the couch. “Okay you guys won. Now it’s my turn!” While trying to grab the controller, River lost his balance, fell into August, and accidently punched him in the ear, jamming the headset into the side of August’s head.
“Owww! River!” August finally lost it. “Why can’t you just disappear! Go outside. Just go.”
River’s bottom lip quivered, but only a tiny bit. He squeezed his fists tightly. “But you said I couldn’t ’cause it’s raining.”
“I changed my mind. Put on your rain boots and go.” August pointed toward the door and sighed in frustration. “Stay in the yard. No barn, no corn.”
Gram didn’t love it when the boys ran through the cornfields. Not only because technically it was not their property, but because they’d come back head-to-toe in mud and track it all over the house. Even August had a hard time obeying that rule. There was something about the long, endless rows, and the way the leaves slapped your face and arms, that made running through the corn irresistible. The tall stalks created a world hidden from view, like the ocean, or space.
“You don’t have to be so hard on him, Aug,” Tilly said quietly. “He’s only nine.”
“Even nine-year-olds should be able to settle down once in a while. He literally never stops moving. I can only take it for so long until I think my brain is going to explode.”
“Well, good game,” Tilly said. “I have to go, but level twenty-seven later?”
“Yep,” August said. “I’ll be here. I’m going to play a little Nightfall with Sean until you get back.”
“Okay. See ya!” Tilly clicked off. August put his headset on the couch and rubbed his sore ear while heading into the kitchen in search of something for lunch. Gram had some leftover ham in the fridge, but he wasn’t in the mood for that so he made himself and River a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. If there was anything River loved more than running around, it was peanut butter. The kid basically lived on it.
What was left of the rainstorm trickled down the wavy glass-paned windows in their dark kitchen. Gram had bought a gallon of eggshell white, as she called it, to paint the old brown-paneled walls, but she was yet to get it done. The farmhouse they rented was in need of a lot more than paint, however. Brown stains on the ceiling, dried and cracked seals around the windows, and the slow leak near the bathtub where sometimes a tiny orange fungus grew were only some of the old house’s problems. August was pretty sure he could go on YouTube to figure out how to do some of these repairs. And if the farmer who owned the house let him, maybe he could even make some money off it. Gram simply never had time between her job and running the boys around.
August finished his sandwich and hopped back online with his friend Sean from Robotics Club. Next summer he’d have more to do than watch River and play Galactic Commanders and Nightfall. He’d be in Florida to start his first training to be a real astronaut. As long as he figured out the money part. He’d only saved about two-hundred of the seventeen hundred dollars needed.
August got online and he and Sean played a couple levels until August got a message from Tilly that she was back and ready to roll. “Hey,” he said to Sean. “Gotta run. Promised Til I’d play at two.”
Sean made kissy noises on his end. ”Dude, shut up,” August said.
He switched back to Galactic Commanders and found Tillybeans800. As they set up the next level, Tilly said, “It’s so quiet over there. What did you do, tie up your brother in the bathtub?”
August hadn’t even realized how much time had passed. “Oh, hang on a sec.” He set his headset down and went over to the kitchen where River’s sandwich still sat, uneaten and becoming stale. He moved the blue-checked curtains aside to see if River was on the swing set out back, but a swing rocked back and forth, empty. Then he went out on the front porch.
“River?”
The rain had formed large puddles on the sidewalk and patchy grass lawn. It was a typical Pennsylvania feeling after a storm, warm and heavy with an eerie breeze. The corn rustled just enough for it to look like someone was running through it. Several crows lifted up and flocked away.
River’s yellow rain boots sat by the steps. “Ri-ver!” August called. “Come eat!”
No one called back.
“River! Where are you?” August circled the house. It wouldn’t be the first time River hid from his wrath. Not that August would ever hurt him, he loved River even when he was annoyed with him. Many nights River would come into his room and snuggle up under the covers with him, sweaty and shaking from a nightmare or thunderstorm. Or that loud creak the farmhouse always seemed to have in the middle of the night, but never during the day. Sometimes he’d ask August to tell him something good about their mother. August always made something up because he didn’t have many memories.
August looked in the shed, behind the shrubs that lined the property, and in the back of the old pickup that hadn’t started in three years—all the usual places. “RIVER! This isn’t funny. I made you a peanut butter sandwich!” Still no answer. August remembered Tilly was still waiting for him. He ran in, shut off the game, and messaged her on her phone.
Sorry, River ran off again. brb.
He didn’t wait for a reply and went back out to keep searching. The last time River did this, he turned up in the barn, so August ran across the property to the old, leaning barn. The farmer didn’t use the barn anymore, probably hadn’t in a decade. He’d built a new, metal warehouse somewhere else on the hundred-acre property where he parked his tractors and stored other equipment.
If the house didn’t show the neglect well enough, the barn was like an exclamation point. August had no clue why River was so enchanted with it. Lopsided and hardly even red anymore, the barn hulked like a broken promise. August hated it. And Gram didn’t like them in there either. She said it would come tumbling down any day and she didn’t want anyone near it when that happened. On the roof, a single crow called out as though reminding August of her warning.
August poked his head in the doorway and shouted his brother’s name again. Still no answer. “Come on, River. We’re not supposed to be in here. Come out and get lunch.”
A couple pigeons flew out of the loft. But no River.
August thought about calling Gram, but if she had to come home from work, she was going to be angry with him for sending River outside in the first place. August had to find him on his own. And he knew he would, because he always did, but he was getting angry that this was taking time from his afternoon with Tilly.
“River Beck! I swear, if you—” August shouted into the air as he walked into the cornfield. He studied the mud for River’s small footprints. He thought he saw a couple, but it was so wet and muddy it was hard to tell. He made sure to stay in the same row so he wouldn’t get his directions mixed up and tried to sound less angry. “I’ll let you play Galactic Commanders! Please stop hiding from me!”
August stopped for a moment to listen to the corn. But the small breeze created only a gentle crackling of leaves. He had the strange sense he was being watched.
Which of course was ridiculous. He was seriously going to kill River when he finally found him.
He ran through the rows now, calling and then stopping to listen for the sound of his little brother’s voice, or shoes slapping through the mud. But every time he paused, there was nothing except maybe a bird overhead or distant rumble of thunder. His chest burned and he panted with exhaustion. This was not the excitement he was looking forward to this summer. He’d much rather be back on the living room floor fighting Buttwad.
Just when he thought it was time to suck it up and call Gram, he burst through a wall of corn into a small clearing. The stalks had been plucked from the field in a perfect circle about ten feet across. In the center of the circle stood a smooth tower made out of glass or mirrors. Maybe both. August couldn’t quite tell. It was taller than him, but not much taller than the corn, which was probably close to eight feet by now. There’d be no way to see the tower from outside the cornfield, not until the corn was harvested in September. It reflected the stalks so well, the tower almost appeared invisible. He had to look at it just the right way to even see it at all. It reminded August of those old books Gram gave him where you had to unfocus your eyes to see the pictures.
August walked up to it and placed a hand on the cool glass. He tried to peer inside, but only saw his reflection in countless panels, like fun house mirrors. A hundred versions of August. He circled the tower, and then stood back to get a better look. The further away from it he stood, the more camouflaged it became. The top was a sheer angle, and looked like it could catch the sunlight and send a light signal to space. He’d seen something like this in some of the Galactic Commanders comic books he used to read years ago.
It was a monolith.
They were usually built by aliens.
“No way,” August said. He always thought someday he’d encounter proof of alien life in the stars, but not in his own backyard! He shook his head and stood back even further, running through possibilities. He wanted to snap a photo but his pocket was empty. He’d left his phone on the kitchen table. Stupid.
For a few minutes, August was so stunned he forgot what he was even doing in the middle of the field in the first place. When it came back to him, he cupped his hands around his mouth and screamed one last time at the top of his lungs.
“River Lane Beck!”
But only the corn whispered back.
Twelve-year-old August lives with his younger brother River and his grandmother on a farm that is not far from the trailer where his best friend Tilly resides with her family. When Gram is out working, it is up to August to care for River, but this is not always easy, especially when August would rather play video games than run around with his brother. One day, August becomes frustrated with River and tells him to go outside and play even though it is storming. But when River goes missing and a mysterious monolith appears in the cornfield, August cannot help but assume that the two events are connected and that he is to blame. Together with Tilly and the rest of their town, August must discover the truth behind River’s disappearance and help him find his way home before it is too late.
This middle grade novel is well-suited to readers who enjoy a mystery that feels otherworldly while simultaneously being anchored in a familiar setting. The novel is told from several perspectives, which grants readers insight into what is happening when not all the characters may be able to access the same information. Engaging dialogue, a compelling plot, and good writing keep the momentum of the story moving forward, and readers will be anxious to learn what happens next.
A map at the beginning of the book orients the reader to the Pennsylvanian countryside where August and his companions reside, and references to relevant places and businesses help make the story feel more real. Despite occasional errors in the text, the novel feels authentic and will resonate with readers in a variety of ways. August and Tilly are both characters with complicated pasts, which is a truth that makes them both accessible because of the challenges they have faced. Each character has something to gain and something to lose from their adventure, so the stakes are high. And with a very light touch of romance, this is a good fit for middle grade readers who appreciate tales that examine both human relationships and what people will do to protect those they love. This compelling story is a good addition to library collections for confident middle grade readers.