Dandelion Wine A Novel

<b>The summer of '28 was a vintage season for a growing boy. A summer of green apple trees, mowed lawns, and new sneakers. Of half-burnt firecrackers, of gathering dandelions, of Grandma's belly-busting dinner. It was a summer of sorrows and marvels and gold-fuzzed bees. A magical, timeless summer in the life of a twelve-year-old boy named Douglas Spaulding—remembered forever by the incomparable Ray Bradbury.</b><br><br>The only god living in Green Town, Illinois, that Douglas Spaulding knew of.<br><br>The facts about John Huff, aged twelve, are simple and soon stated. <br><br>• He could pathfind more trails than any Choctaw or Cherokee since time began. <br>• Could leap from the sky like a chimpanzee from a vine. <br>• Could live underwater two minutes and slide fifty yards downstream. <br>• Could hit baseballs into apple trees, knocking down harvests. <br>• Could jump six-foot orchard walls. <br>• Ran laughing. <br>• Sat easy. <br>• Was not a bully. <br>• Was kind. <br>• Knew the words to all the cowboy songs and would teach you if you asked. <br>• Knew the names of all the wild flowers and when the moon would rise or set and when the tides came in or out.<br><br>He was, in fact, the only god living in the whole of Green Town, Illinois, during the twentieth century that Douglas Spaulding knew of.<br><br><b>“[Ray] Bradbury is an authentic original.”—<i>Time</i></b>