Thorndancer: only $10.00 +shipping&handling 

When Thorndancer, a small albino skunk, decides he needs to leave the meadow, the elder skunks declare him crazy. Everyone knows that to leave the meadow is deadly. That nothing exists outside of it.

But wanderlust has settled down on Thorndancer’s shoulders and so he sets out on a journey of discovery – to find out who he is, where he came from and why he is the only white skunk in the world.

This enchanting coming-of-age tale from author Gary Petras calls to the heart of boys and girls alike as they also struggle with the same questions as Thorndancer and embark on their own personal journey from the safety of childhood into the wild, frightening world of the adult.

Thorndancer is perfect for kids ages 12 to 16 but its timeless theme and storytelling appeal to all ages.

Read an excerpt:

As night fell, lights came on in the near distance. Thorndancer stopped and gazed at them. That’s where the human’s live, he thought. It’s night. I suppose those lights might mean that they’re all tucked in safe and sound. I wonder what they’re doing. His thoughts rang with Hyacinth’s warning about people, but his curiosity was getting the better of him. If they don’t see me, they can’t harm me. A slight twinge from his wounded side was another portent he chose to ignore.

Staying well out of sight, he cautiously approached the town. The place was quiet and still. He walked along the main street, sticking to the swatches of shadow and avoiding pools of yellow light provided by the hazy glow of the corner streetlamps. Most of the windows of the houses and buildings had thick coverings over them, but a few remained wide open. The humans must have left those open, the young skunk decided, so that visitors like me could get a good look at what they are like. Walking cautiously up to one of the windows, he climbed up on the ledge and pressed his nose against the glass. Inside, two adult humans sat on separate chairs. Each held small containers which they frequently raised to their lips. Two smaller humans sat on the floor of the room beside a glass bowl, grabbing handfuls of something white out of it and stuffing it into their mouths. All four of them were staring at a small rectangular box with bright images flashing across the front of it.

Thorndancer tried to follow the images on the box, but it confused him. His eyes became bleary and he had to turn away from the window to blink. When he turned around once again to watch the occupants of the house he saw that none of them had moved an inch. How can they stare at that thing without harming their eyes or at the least blinking? Maybe the flashing images have something to do with it? Maybe they enter the human brain and dull their senses.  Maybe it even thinks for them. Is that how humans spend their days? Seated transfixed in front of a box? No thought? No feeling? No real emotional bond? How sad, thought the young skunk, still trying to wash the stinging from his eyes. Watching images and refusing to partake in life.

He leapt from the window ledge to the street below and scurried back out into the warm, inviting shadows of the night. He kicked a small stone down the street and hurried after it, then kicked it again, skipping it along as he continued down the street. He lost the stone in the shadows along the curbside after a few minutes, sniffed the air for any signs of danger, and then waddled on. As he came to the end of the street, he saw one last window that had been left open to the world. He decided to give these strange creatures one more chance.

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