Jeff Pratt

A teacher for 32 years, Jeff Pratt translated "retirement" into an eight-year journey of redemption. He spent much of his childhood guided by the animals and trees of a little valley near Wooster, Ohio. Nestled in the valley were an island of pines, a little stream and four ponds. Pratt knew all the deer paths, the fox den, the best fishing holes and the best swinging vines. Every child should have such a place, but too few do, and often in this world, such places do not last. The end of "the...See more

A teacher for 32 years, Jeff Pratt translated "retirement" into an eight-year journey of redemption. He spent much of his childhood guided by the animals and trees of a little valley near Wooster, Ohio. Nestled in the valley were an island of pines, a little stream and four ponds. Pratt knew all the deer paths, the fox den, the best fishing holes and the best swinging vines. Every child should have such a place, but too few do, and often in this world, such places do not last. The end of "the valley" began with survey stakes, then machinery, then a four-lane highway that took traffic around the city. And there was nothing a12-year-old boy could do about it. It has taken 8 years of journeying, from Ohio to the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, for Pratt to find that valley once again-first with a little house along a cascading brook in a town called Passumpsic (Abenaki for clear-flowing water). And second with a book-this one-the one you hold right now. See less