His Life Abiding

This book is about a boy with emotional issues who lives in a foster home. One day a new younger kid arrives and our hero (Tyler) becomes convinced that this kid is hiding a secret. But this isn't a ordinary secret. Tyler is sure that the younger boy is actually reincarnated from a world world 2 German sailor who died in a prisoner of war camp in the US. This is a very unusual plot which is a lot like a murder mystery meets a paranormal thriller. Tyler's helped along by his older foster brother and an old man who was the chief investigator on the original crime. The plot takes you on many twists and turns and has a lot of surprises while holding your attention the entire time. The characters are very good and realistic and I would highly recommend this book. The author (Marsh Meyers) has additional information on the story and some of the real events it was based on on his webpage which is an interesting read too.

What a tremendous debut teen novel for Mr. Myers! His characters are realistic, and Myers’ is able to weave a story which does not disappoint. Sawyer is a child who is in a situation of life after death, a drowning that occurred some years passed during World War II. A haunting tale with a supernatural twist that starts out innocently enough, and is able to chronicle the friendship that develops between Tyler and Sawyer with events that turn back the hands of time to World War II. Throughout the novel the two boys piece together snippets of information and together discover what truly happened so many years ago. Tyler must help Sawyer stay alive as they discover the disturbing truth about his past life that puts him in danger in the present. Thus unfolds this teen tale of heroism, darkness, light, and hope.
This novel is geared towards children ages 11-14 and is now a part of my classroom library collection. I’ve had a couple of students in my classroom who have finished the book and we are all looking forward to Myers’ next novel.

Im always hesitant when a book has a character who's a bad kid trying to do right. It can be really cliche but this book handled that well with the protagonist being a realistically handled foster kid (and the author a foster parent evidently). When you get into trouble a lot, who's gonna listen to you? Right? Especially if you come up with some crazy idea that another kid in your group home is reincarnated from a drowned German sailor in WW2! A good fun read.

The author's website has more infomration on this title and is worth looking at too!