Kindle Edition Amazon Category:  Action/Thriller Publisher: Createspace ISBN-10:  150314965X Type: Fiction Pages: 216 Copyright: Jan 12, 2015 ISBN-13: 9781503149656 Price: $3.99 (eBook) Dog Bone Soup is a coming of age story set in 1950s and 60s New England. It's a story of hope and happiness in the face of despair. Boomers call them The Good Old Days—the 1950s and 60s—a time when America was flying high. An era when The All-American Family lived a life filled with hopes and dreams come true. Shawn Daniels isn't your typical American Boomer boy.  Shawn is a poor boy and his father is the town drunk. Shawn's family has no indoor plumbing or running water, but they do have a TV. After all, Dad deserves the rewards of his labor. Meanwhile, Shawn and his brother Willie keep the firewood cut and stacked, haul in water for cooking and cleaning and take care of whatever else needs to be done around the ramshackle place they call home. But when chores are done, these resourceful kids set out on boundless adventures that don't cost a dime. On a bitter New England day in 1964, Shawn Daniels is on his way to boot camp to soak up the southern sun and strike out on a new adventure in a place where he believes it's possible to make his dreams come true. Find out where this Boomer's been and where he's going in DOG BONE SOUP, a coming-of-age saga.       Excerpt From Chapter 15 “Pull over!” Soon as I put her in park, Willie jumped out of the car and flew around to hop in the driver’s seat. I’d already let him back in and out of the door yard a few times. By the time Willie cruised around the edge of the field four or five times, I was getting bored. “Hey, let’s try to turn some donuts out here. Not enough room in the yard. Besides, Mum’d have a fit if she caught us doin’ something like that with Annie and Molly around. “Huh?” “Let’s switch seats and I’ll show you what I’m talkin’ about.” I jumped behind the wheel and headed straight for the middle of field, floored the pedal and held the wheels to the right as far as they’d go. The Buick was smokin’ and field grass was flyin’. I straightened the wheels, rolled to a new spot and floored it again. Then I let Willie take his turn. By the time we headed back up the road, we’d made more donuts in that field than Mum could fry up at one time in her twelve-inch cast iron skillet. “About time you boys got home,” Mum shook her head as we walked through the door without a fish in hand. Monday at work, the guys were all talking about a big police investigation going on over at Brown’s farm out on the Walker Road. “Some smart-ass kids been out there tearing up Troy Brown’s hay field. Brown’s madder than a bullfrog in a brush fire, and I don’t blame him. Says if he catches the culprits he’s gettin’ the judge to haul ’em off to the jug.” I could feel the heat flashin’ across my face. Didn’t dare look anywhere that day, except at the work tables and the hides that I tossed on ’em. Never said a word to anyone but Willie about what I heard at the tannery and I was darned lucky that we didn’t get caught. From then on we’d be sticking to open roads and fishin’ spots.

DOG BONE SOUP is about making the best of what you have
DOG BONE SOUP is about making the best of what you have
By Frank Scozzari on October 7, 2015
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

DOG BONE SOUP is a fascinating literary study of poverty and family dysfunctional in the 1950 & 1960s. It is written in a fast-flowing, entertaining style that kept my turning pages, one after another.

Despite the odds stacked against them, two brothers—Shawn Daniels and Willie—manage to survive, escaping the rants of a drunken abusive father and the hardships of rural life, cutting out on daily adventures and misadventures to the likes of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry. DOG BONE SOUP is about making the best of what you have. It's a story about survival, struggle, and the human spirit—rising above it all. As with all great literature, it is underscored with life lessons particularly memorable to this generation.

This is true-to-life Americana; a story any Baby Boomer, rich or poor, can connect with and enjoy.