Book Review
St. George’s Independent School freshman Ehi Ike, 14, has loved to read and write since she was old enough to put pen to paper. She began writing short stories in elementary school but had trouble completing a project because she was continually coming up with new story ideas. It wasn’t until the eighth grade, when history teacher Traci Erlandson taught a lesson about the Trail of Tears and the forcible removal of Cherokee Indians from their homeland in 1838, that Ike determined the storyline for her recently published novel, “Taken Away.”She sat down during the winter holiday break to write the fast-paced thriller about a 14-year-old girl snatched from her home by government officials after Congress passed a law forbidding children from lower-income families to live with their parents. Ike, with no agent and no clue about how to go about publishing her 170-page novel, researched the process online and sent her story to Tate Publishing. A short time later, her father received an email stating that Tate Publishing was happy to accept her manuscript, and the editing process began.
“Taken Away,” to be released June 8, will be available at Barnes & Noble and amazon.com.
– St. George’s Independent School
