Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Christian Fiction

Author: Mark Stanleigh Morris

ISBN 1590524063

The following review was contributed by:  E.Dian Moore &  To read more about Dian Moore’s reviews click HERE: To read Dian's Interview With The Author CLICK HERE

Childhood stays with us long after we’ve passed the age of innocence, and this tale of growing up too fast is a testament to the resilience of children and the power that making the right choices can bring to lives riddled with despair, fear, lies and uncertainty. 

The story opens in 1958, and anyone who is 40-something years of age, will recognize the nostalgic antics we participated in as kids. But Billy Goat Hill isn’t just a story about childhood and coming-of-age. It’s a narrative about emotional and physical survival, the power and positive imprint a stranger can leave on a young life; and the rewards that a stubbornness to overcome can bring.

The Parker family is trying to recover from the death of an infant brother, and a mother’s grief tends to distance her from her two living sons. Lucinda, as Wade refers to his mother, is a lost soul, and 8-year old Wade assigns himself the responsibility to care for his foundering family.

Earl, the Parker brothers’ father, is mostly missing; a carefree alcoholic who can’t seem to connect with his role as a father. Wade wonders how life might be different if Duke Snider, the famous player for the Dodgers, were his father, instead. Wade weighs most of his major life decisions as a child against what Duke might think, say or do, and it’s a running theme throughout the book.

But Wade Parker’s most urgent dilemma at 8-years-old is completing a dare to ride a cardboard sled down the infamous Billy Goat Hill on the outskirts of Los Angeles. It’s during his early morning escapade, which involves sneaking out of the house with his six-year-old brother, Luke, that the Parker brothers first meet a man and woman who will forever influence their young lives.

Convinced they will be killed for witnessing what looks like a motorcycle gang confrontation, the young Parkers instead become fascinated with a dynamic couple they first know as Scar and Miss Cherry, both of whom are police officers and who are in on a prank to initiate a rookie officer.

From that moment, the Parker boys form a lifelong bond with Scar, aka Sergeant, and Miss Cherry.

At times, the Sergeant and/or Miss Cherry are absent from the continuing lives of the Parker boys; and the incidents that separate the foursome are such that tend to happen in life, but still birth the question of “why.”

Also running throughout the story line is a thread of Christianity, which gets picked up off and on through dilemmas and the people who come into a life. Like a needle slipping in and out of fabric, it nicely ties the story together and brings all the pieces together like a well-made quilt.

This is not intended as a touchy-feely feel-good book; but it is a well-above-average, satisfying read that leaves a good feeling behind anyway.

Morris writes with a lyrical voice and uses vivid, innovating descriptions that beg to be read aloud. Morris was born and raised in Southern California, a background that brings a richness to the setting for Billy Goat Hill.

Told in first person from Wade’s point of view, Billy Goat Hill spans the defining years of childhood and early adulthood, throws in some life events in the middle and ends with Wade at 40 years old and coming into his fullness as a man of God.