Title: The Metric Clock
Author: Phillip B. Chute
Genre: Middle Grade/Young Adult
Book Blurb:
A hazardous adventure forces a young boy to adapt in order to survive.
Charles is an intelligent nine-year-old living in 1946 New England. Despite his intellect, Charles tends to be absentminded and preoccupied with daydreaming. He enjoys spending time with the group of boys that live on his street, but the most genuine connection he forms is with his best friend Mary Anne. Charles is presented with an opportunity to accompany his father on a trip to his hometown in rural Canada.
While staying at the farm his father grew up on, Charles is able to learn of his father's past and his hidden personality. He gains a deeper understanding of his father through stories of his youth and learns of how the Great Depression led him to emigrate to the United States. Charles realizes the role hardship and suffering has played in his father's life and begins to form a solid connection with his once distant father.
Charles appreciates the chance to meet and interact with members of his father's family. His older cousin takes an interest in him, and he decides to bring Charles on a hunting trip. The two young boys encounter a dangerous situation that forces Charles into a role that requires great strength and maturity. Will he find the resolve within himself to survive? Will he emerge unchanged, or will this unfortunate excursion leave him altered forever?
Excerpt:
They got up and walked across the top of the hill, descending the other side. Charles felt very strange and uneasy as they followed a narrow animal path that wound around trees and bushes. The wind continued making intermittent low moaning noises as it passed through the pine forest above them. Suddenly, Robert slipped on the pathway. Traces of grey clay on the path had become treacherously wet from the rain. As he fell he grabbed Charles. They both slid down the path a few yards. The path abruptly turned at the edge of a cliff that ran along the stream bed. Charles grasped at a small bush which came up in his hand. They plummeted over the edge of the cliff. For a moment there was weightlessness. Robert let go of Charles as they hurtled through space. They were screaming as they landed on the rocks below. Then blinding engulfing pain and darkness.
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Author Biography:
Phillip Bruce Chute, EA is a businessman-writer. He is currently a tax and financial advisor with a consulting practice in Temecula, California.
Phil served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division in the States and Europe during the Cold War. His ancestry dates back to warrior-king Robert Bruce of Scotland and the Speaker of Parliament Chaloner Chute of England. As a writer, Phillip has won National and International awards from Kiwanis International. His first book, American Independent Business, was a 500-page book published in 1985 and used as a college textbook and reference for business entrepreneurs. A second book, Rock & Roll Murders, was published in 2006. It was based on a true story about the KOLA radio station-Fred Cote Murder-One trials and conviction in Riverside of 1990. He has also published articles for the Nova Scotia periodical, The Shore News, and has been interviewed by Entrepreneur Magazine. Phillip Chute is married to Nenita Chute, an educator. Both work out of their home.
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