Spark by Jill Shope Hackman, a review

Spark by Jill Shope Hackman, a review

Spark by J.M. Hackman tells the Christian fantasy tale of Brenna, a Pennsylvania schoolgirl just turning 16. Brenna discovers to her dismay that flames shoot from her fingertips when she’s angry. After she sets a school display on fire, causing the sprinkler system to...
Dreamtreaders by Wayne Thomas Batson, a review

Dreamtreaders by Wayne Thomas Batson, a review

Dreamtreaders by Wayne Thomas Batson, a reviewPublished 2014 by Thomas Nelson, 289 pagesGenre: Middle grade fantasy fiction In Dreamtreaders, a middle-grade story by Wayne Thomas Batson (2014), Archer Keaton, age 14, serves humanity as a Dreamtreader. In his...
Failstate by John W. Otte, a review

Failstate by John W. Otte, a review

Failstate: Legends by John Otte, Book 2 of Failstate seriesPublished 2013 by Marcher Lord Press, 455 pagesGenre: Young adult superhero tale, suitable for middle grade and up Failstate: Legends by John Ottte (2013) looks like a graphic novel, but it isn’t....
Merlin’s Nightmare by Robert Treskillard, a review

Merlin’s Nightmare by Robert Treskillard, a review

Robert Treskillard concludes his terrific YA Merlin trilogy with this book, Merlin’s Nightmare (2014), leaving some threads open for starting a new work focused on Arthur.  I’m really enjoying Treskillard’s re-imagining of Merlin as a non-magician. Merlin is a...
My father, engineer

My father, engineer

This slide rule belonged to my dad, the engineer. Eldred W. Hough, although he was the oldest son, wasn’t named for his father, Thomas C. Hough. Instead, his younger brother got the name Thomas Hough. So, why did the younger one get the father’s name?...

Thomas Hough, immigrant and entrepreneur

Thomas Hough, an enterprising young man, was born in 1844 into a lower-class family in Yorkshire, England, and didn’t like his prospects. His education stopped at the sixth grade, and his dad was a wagon driver. He got a job at the local  cotton mill as a lift...