Jason's Story
Copyright© 2025 by writer 406
Chapter 31
Twelve-year-old Melanie Hastings was supposed to be reading “History Alive! The Ancient World” for her seventh-grade history class. Instead, she was three-quarters of the way through “Chilkoot Pass: The Adventures of Finnegan Sheehy.”
“You might like this one, Melanie,” Ms. Owens, the school librarian, had said, handing her the book with its simple cover, showing a silhouette of a boy and a girl climbing a steep, snowy mountain. “It’s about a boy your age and a young woman disguised as a boy traveling to the Klondike during the Alaska Gold Rush. It just came out last month.”
Melanie had started reading it that afternoon and couldn’t stop. The boy, Finn, felt like a real kid—the way he thought about money and survival, the way he was at the same time street-smart and sweet. But it was Mary’s determination to prove herself as a reporter, despite everyone telling her it was impossible, that resonated with her.
She was reading the chapter where Finn and Mary were aboard the ship to Alaska, bickering about whether Mary’s disguise would hold up in close quarters when her Aunt Sharice called from the kitchen.
“Mel, come on, dinner’s ready!”
“Five more minutes!”
“Now, please. Your mom will be here to pick you up soon.”
Melanie reluctantly marked her place and brought the book to the dinner table, unable to stop thinking about Mary’s frustration with having to dress like a stupid boy just to do what she wanted.
“What are you reading?” Aunt Sharice asked, serving pasta while eyeing the book Melanie had set beside her plate.
“It’s called ‘Chilkoot Pass: The Adventures of Finnegan Sheehy.’ It’s about this twelve-year-old kid in Seattle who teaches a rich girl how to act like a boy so she can travel to Alaska during the Gold Rush and be a newspaper reporter.”
Sharice Carter set down the serving spoon, her professional interest immediately piqued. As a senior producer for Oprah’s Book Club, she’d developed instincts about stories that resonated beyond their target demographics.
“When is it set?”
“1897, during the Klondike Gold Rush. But Aunt Sharice, it’s not boring history stuff. It’s about this orphan kid who’s been taking care of himself since he was like ten, and he’s really smart, but he doesn’t think he can be anything more than a newsboy. And this girl Mary is talented and smart too, but nobody takes her seriously because she’s a girl, so she has to disguise herself as a boy.”
Sharice watched her niece’s animated description, noting her enthusiasm. Melanie was a voracious reader but discriminating too—she didn’t usually get this excited about the books she read.
“Can I see it?”
Melanie handed over the book reluctantly, as if afraid her aunt might confiscate it before she could finish.
Sharice examined the cover, read the jacket copy, then flipped to a random page and began reading. The prose was clean and direct, the dialogue felt authentic, and the historical details were woven into the narrative rather than dumped in exposition blocks.
“Hey, I see what you’re saying. This is pretty good,” she said, reading several more pages. “Who’s the author?”
“Jason Stone. It says that this is his first book.”
Sharice made a mental note to research Jason Stone later. The writing quality was significantly higher than typical young adult fiction, but it was accessible enough for Melanie’s age group. That combination was hard to pull off and spelled the difference between run-of-the-mill and excellent.
“Can I borrow this?”
“I’m not done yet! I’m at the part where they’re on the ship and there’s a storm, and Mary gets seasick, but she has to keep pretending to be a boy.”
“I’ll wait until you finish. But Mel, you’ve made me curious.”
Two days later, Melanie finished the book and immediately texted her aunt: “I’m done. The ending made me cry, but in a good way.”
Sharice ended up buying two copies of the book: one hardback for her niece to have and one Kindle for herself. She read it in one sitting. By midnight, she was making notes about why “Chilkoot Pass: The Adventures of Finnegan Sheehy” would be perfect for Oprah’s Book Club.
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