By Linda Benson
When I first started to write SIX DEGREES OF LOST, I had two characters floating around in my head. One was Olive, a thirteen-year-old girl who is shipped off to Washington State to live with an aunt who runs a foster home for homeless dogs, cats, and horses. With a mother in jail, an absent father, and a brother who just joined the Army, Olive is left with no choices. The other character was David, a fourteen-year- old boy who feels like all of his choices in life have been decided already: take advanced classes, apply to the Air Force Academy, and then serve his country like his brothers before him.
Because I wanted to try something new as a writer, and because both of these characters were speaking
to me so strongly, I decided to let them each narrate alternate chapters. So SIX DEGREES OF LOST is
told from two viewpoints: Olive narrates one chapter and then David narrates the next. Olive and David
meet early in the story, and they both have their own challenges in life, but at one point their friendship
is tested, when one springs into action to help the other. It was a fun and challenging novel to write,
because I cared deeply about both of these characters, even though it was sometimes a bit of jig-saw
puzzle deciding who would narrate which part of the action.
I’ve been told that SIX DEGREES OF LOST reads like young teen fiction, and I believe this is true. While much of the story involves animals, family dynamics, first crushes, and could easily be enjoyed by
younger readers, there are also a few intense situations involving teens making bad choices that set it
apart from straight middle grade. Is there anybody else out there who believes young teens deserve
more realistic fiction written just for them?
Sometimes you have to take a journey to find out where you really belong.
Olive’s mother is headed to jail and her brother to join the Army, so thirteen-year-old Olive is
uprooted from sunny California and dumped in Washington State like a stray. That's exactly
what she feels like surrounded by her aunt’s collection of homeless dogs, cats, and horses.
Fourteen-year-old David’s future is already carved in stone. From a military family with two
brothers serving overseas, he’s been pointed towards the Air Force Academy his entire life -
but a rafting trip gone awry might ruin his chances. When a runaway dog is almost hit by a car,
the search for its owner leads Olive and David, two teens from entirely different backgrounds,
to an unlikely bond. Will their growing attraction to each other be enough to keep Olive from a
foolhardy journey to find her mother? Will David risk his family’s plans to save her?
