Open Your Eyes, Jackson Ryder

(Paperback)

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Fifteen-year-old Jackson Ryder has always loved art, but in the wake of his mother'' death, he must choose between his passion and his grieving father's approval. Pulled from his New York home and thrust into the melting pot that is San Sebastiano, California, in the 1960s, Jackson finds himself embroiled in an era of assassination, an emerging art scene, the Civil Rights Movement and The Beatles. As he learns how to deal with life, death and a newfound interest in girls, drawing is the only thing stopping his world from spinning out of control.

Author Bio

In 1986 Mexican-American artist, Rudy, and his Kiwi wife, Janice, walked 5000 km across the USA in support of global nuclear disarmament. Afterward, with a pregnant wife and $250, he immigrated to New Zealand and worked in art education for the next two decades. He wrote his first novel, The Song of Laughing Bird (National Pacific Press), for daughter, India, in 2005. His project for his Graduate Diploma in Creative Writing at Whitireia in 2013 was the first draft of Open Your Eyes, Jackson Ryder. He was also given the Honour Award in the New Zealand Writing School Short Story Competition that year. In 2014 he started writing full-time. He lives on the banks of the Pauatahanui Inlet, with Jan, India, his son Ben, mother-in-law, Patricia, three cats and several fish.