Wayne M. Johnston taught English, Creative Writing and Publications at La Connor High School in Washington state for nineteen years. Prior to that, he worked on tugboats for twenty-two years, usually as chief engineer, towing freight barges between Canadian and American ports. In 2011, he won the Soundings Review First Publication Award for his essay, "Sailing." For his debut novel, Northfork, he drew from his years of experience in reading student journals to reproduce the way kids voice serious matters to a trusted adult. He lives with his wife, Sally, on Fidalgo Island where he is working on another book.
"Gr 9 Up--When golden girl Kristen goes missing, everyone in the
area around Anacortes, WA feels her loss and is quick to blame the
person she was last seen with, Corey, a troubled loner. Once the
police find Kristen's blood at the campsite where Corey hides out
from his abusive stepfather, the teen is locked up in juvenile
detention as a suspect in her murder. No one believes his story of
innocence, least of all Kristen's best friend, Natalie, who knows
the details of Corey's sordid past all too well. Yet nearly as soon
as the stage is set for a riveting whodunit, the narrative
switches. Kristen, exhausted by pretending to be someone she isn't
in her seemingly perfect life, has run away to British Columbia and
has been trying to make it on her own, never realizing that her
friend Corey would be catching all the fallout of her decision.
Natalie, under the impression that Kristen is dead, grieves for her
friend.... Themes of struggling to survive emerge, engaging mature
readers as they discover how these teens deal with stalkers,
juvenile detention, and the consequences of reckless decisions.
Because of its dynamic plot and relevant themes, the novel has a
lot of promise, but misses the mark at times. Some of the
characters' actions and motivations seem unrealistic, and there are
a few plotlines that fizzle without reaching a satisfying
conclusion. VERDICT: A good recommendation for reluctant readers"
-- School Library Journal
"In North Fork, a girl goes missing, affecting the lives of all the
people around her. Kristen, the girl who vanishes, is one of three
narrators of the story, along with her best friend and the boy who
is the prime suspect in Kristen's presumed murder. The male and
female voices are authentic and engaging. One of the salient themes
is consequences, and it is interesting to observe how both major
and minor characters deal with the fall-out from Kristen's
disappearance, how it draws some people together and pulls others
apart. Reminiscent of a youthful, searching Gone Girl." -- Laurie
Blauner, author of The Solace of Monsters and Infinite Kindness
"The premise of North Fork sounds all too familiar--it could be
ripped from today's headlines. A high school girl goes missing and
a loner kid is the primary suspect in her disappearance. Families
are broken, relationships are strained, trust is in short supply.
But don't let that scare you away from checking out this compelling
Young Adult novel by Wayne M. Johnston. A retired La Conner High
School language arts teacher, Johnston draws from his years of
experience in the classroom for this story. He nails the way teens
talk and does a pretty good job of describing the restrictions and
frustrations that these incipient adults are grappling with. The
story revolves around three young people as narrators. Kristen is
the good student who toes the line and is pretty and well-liked,
but her mom and stepfather drive her crazy with their materialism
and controlling ways. Kristen's best friend, Natalie, is
tougher--an outlier who at an early age was abandoned by her mom.
She is living with an aunt who is cool but stretched thin. And
Corey is the boy whose biological dad is an alcoholic, and whose
violence-prone stepdad makes his life a living hell. Corey's method
of coping is to stay away as much as possible. He creates a
hideaway out along the North Fork of the Skagit River, and when he
and Kristen become unlikely friends, he shows it to her and
unwittingly gives her the idea for running away. Kristen comes
across some information that suggests her mom has not been truthful
about her identity. To forge her own authentic life, she decides to
make her way to Canada, but she wants to throw people off track, so
when she arrives in Victoria, she arranges with someone who is
traveling to Hawaii to take a letter she's written to her folks,
and mail it from there. That way they'll know she's alive, but if
anybody is looking for her, they'll be looking in the wrong place.
But the letter doesn't get mailed. Meantime, back in the Skagit
Valley, Corey was the last person seen with Kristen, and law
enforcement believes he is responsible for her
disappearance--during the investigation of the case, which turns up
some evidence that seems to be incriminating, he is locked up in
juvenile detention. Natalie, who had a bad run-in with Corey years
earlier, is ready to believe the worst about him now. In braiding
these narratives together, Johnston creates a page-turning tale.
Those of us who are teens, or who remember what it was like to be a
teen, or who live and work with teens, will recognize the
authenticity of these lives. One criticism--the author endows his
young characters with perhaps more capacity for introspection
involving sophisticated interpretation of literary texts than most
kids would actually muster. But hey, an English teacher is
permitted to dream. North Fork rewards its readers with hidden
nuggets of wisdom concerning trust, resilience and--when
warranted--forgiveness." -- Bellingham Herald and Kitsap Sun
"This is a novel that examines the redemptive power of faith and
trust, of resilience, of ambition and hope, of the high cost of
secrecy and willful blindness. Johnston brings not only the
required tools of imagination and artistry to this book, but an
authentic empathy for his characters." -- Sam Green, Inaugural
Washington State Poet Laureate
"Wayne M. Johnston explores the inner struggles of three kids as
they maneuver through teenage angst and difficult family
situations. When one of them suddenly disappears, all three of
these unique and vastly different individuals are drawn together in
ways that will change them forever. North Fork will keep the reader
anticipating what will happen next until the very end." -- Stacia
Decker-Ahmed, author of The Weirder the Better
"When Kristen disappears one night, her absence leaves a gap that
affects everyone, especially two people her own age. Kristen's best
friend, Natalie, grieves for her missing friend, even while finding
herself on the cusp of a new relationship with a boy that's based
on trust, a relationship she'd love nothing more than to tell
Kristen all about. But that's impossible, because Corey killed
Kristen. At least, that's what Natalie and the rest of the town
thinks. But, as Corey writes in his journal, 'I could never hurt
her.' Corey and Kristen were friends. In each other, they found
someone who understood what it felt like to be on the outside of
things. Unfortunately, Corey was in the wrong place at the wrong
time, and he's getting the blame. If Kristen knew, she'd come back,
but her story takes place far away from her friends. Johnston
weaves a braid of three first-person narratives into a solid plot,
creating believable teen characters who find themselves struggling
against adults who don't always take their best interests into
account. The narrative manages to be suspenseful, even as the main
mystery is revealed almost immediately, and the final puzzle is
satisfying, though occasionally the dialogue and inner monologues
feel forced. Corey's an unspecified part 'Native, ' Kristen's
dark-skinned, and Natalie's likely white; the story is set in the
Seattle area. Overall, the tripartite narration works well to
deliver a suspenseful story." -- Kirkus Reviews
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