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When 12-year-old Basil’s mother forces him to transfer to a new school, Basil is miserable. But there is one glimmer of hope in his seemingly dreary future – the school has a newspaper looking for a new staff member. Basil has always dreamed of being a reporter, so he applies for the job on the first day of school and is thrilled when he is awarded a coveted position on the "St. Norbert's News" staff.
But then Basil is given an overwhelming challenge -- he is assigned to write articles on religious issues for their parochial school. Basil is perplexed until a genius idea strikes him – to research real, modern miracles and write about them for the paper.
Throughout <I>Basil's Search for Miracles</I> Basil writes on a different miracle for each issue of the paper while also dealing with his own personal struggles. At home he argues constantly with his stressed-out single mom; at school he struggles to avoid an undersized bully with a big ego while simultaneously trying to fit in with his new peers. When Basil tries to befriend Anthony, the socially-awkward artist of the newspaper who comes from an abusive home, Basil agonizes over how to help him. Anthony refuses to leave his life as he knows it until one day he strangely disappears and Basil fears the worst. When Basil discovers just what really happened to Anthony, he learns an important lesson about the true nature of miracles.
Illustrations by Abigail Halpin.
REVIEWS "Basil's Search for Miracles is truly a page-turner. Heather Zydek has done a remarkable job of exploring complex relationships and at the same time introducing Orthodox Christianity to readers who may have had little or no contact with any church. The kids in her story emerge as very real young people. The issue of parental abuse is brought into the narrative effectively and in a challenging way." —Jim Forest, author of Praying with Icons, The Wormwood File: E-mail From Hell
"Basil's Search for Miracles is the third-best basic primer on the Orthodox Church that I've read (after "The Orthodox Church" and "Becoming Orthodox"). But it's not full of facts about Orthodoxy. Rather it's a slim novel about a 12-year-old boy working on an assignment for his middle-school newspaper. This makes it typically Orthodox: no bottom line, just a narrative; not lots of doctrine or dogma, just bits of wisdom swirling around." — Adela McKay, religionandspirituality.com
"Basil's Search for Miracles is an engaging, well-paced and richly-textured story. Mrs. Zydek's treatment of the miraculous is sensitive and rings true for the Orthodox context. I would heartily recommend Basil's Search to any young person who is struggling to make sense of life and wants to better understand weeping icons, relics and healing. Ultimately, this book is not just about the supernatural--it also speaks to the gift of compassion and how it can transform us from within and bring healing to the broken lives around us." —Jenny Schroedel, author of The Blackbird's Nest: Saint Kevin of Ireland
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Heather Zydek is a novelist, book publicist and English teacher who lives in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin with her husband and three daughters. She served as editor of the books The Revolution: A field manual for changing your world and The Relevant Nation: 50 Activists, Artists and Innovators who are changing their world with faith (Relevant Books, 2006). Learn more about her work at www.heatherzydek.com.
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