I didn't know anything about this book but I liked the title. A nice surprise. Well written and a good ending, a place where many authors have let me down. I would like to give this book 4.5 stars and I will look for more books by this author. Plotting, pacing, and characters were all just right.The place, KY coal mines, is one not familiar to me, but the ecological issues are well presented. A great coming of age story. ( )

If you have a love of Appalachia and her natural beauty and despise mountaintop removal, this coming of age story will touch you. It reads quickly, but I was hoping my plane didn't land before I finished the last 100-150 pages. ( )

The Secret Wisdom of the Earth portrays a story of a boy’s journey into manhood a rural town in Kentucky. So many tragic events dominate the story, but the reader does not learn Paul Harvey’s “the rest of the story” until halfway into the novel. Christopher Scotton weaves classic novels into his story: The Call of the Wild, Treasure Island, The Lord of the Flies, Robinson Crusoe. What a treat to be transplanted into these old stories. Pops, Kevin’s maternal grandfather, resembles Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. Pops stands for justice and humility and he is highly respected. A tragic accident plunges Kevin and his mother into a self-made prison and the two must return to Kentucky and Pops for redemption. Throughout the novel, Kevin faces choices that present good and bad and flight or fight. Kevin must rely on his grandfather’s teachings to lead the way. The story centers on racism, ignorance, and poverty. This is a community built on the coal mines and the ravaging of the land. Scotton builds on the beauty and harshness of the land and the people. A long but enlightening book. ( )

The Secret Wisdom of the Earth is one of those rare long books that don’t feel long. Carrying the reader to a different time and place, author Christopher Scotton describes scenery and its loss in loving detail, peoples town and mountain with genuinely flawed human beings, and offers heart-searching hope.

With scars on the land paralleling those that grow on the human psyche, with things that can and can’t heal, and with perfectly timed revelations, the present life of a wounded teen, the past of a wounded grandfather, and the future of a broken mountain all come together. Bound up in it all are human demands and expectations, competing needs and greeds, and the cruel fire of moral rectitude that can turn love to hate as surely as a mountain-top blown away.

The characters feel real. The trek through wilderness is haunting and unforgettable. And the trek through regrets, slowly turning hearts from what’s lost to what’s yet to come, is wisely offered, a legend for our times.

There’s just the right touch of coincidence, just the right touch of mystical hope, and just the right touch of righteous understanding… I love this book.

Disclaimer: A friend loaned it to me. Thank you Jean. ( )

I easily got caught up in this story, especially the last part when the main character, 14 year old Kevin, has to pull of an amazing feat of survival and grit to save the lives of him, his grandfather, and his best friend. It starts out sedately enough - Kevin and his mother are staying with his grandfather - "Pops" - for the summer in an attempt to help his mother recover after the death of Kevin's younger brother. At first the reader doesn't know how Kevin's brother died and waiting for that secret to be revealed does build some nice tension early in the story. Even though Kevin is burdened by this secret he is also soon enjoying the more rural environment of his Grandfather's small community, and soon makes a best friend named Buzzy Fink. He and Buzzy have several adventures together, adventures where Kevin learns about the secrets of woods and mudholes and caves. Kevin also learns much from Pops about the character and relationships between the residents of the close knit community, as Kevin starts helping Pops with his work at a veterinarian. We soon learn that a local mining outfit is tearing up the area by "mountain top mining" - basically blasting off the tops of mountains to get the very last bit of coal out of them. Pops is strongly against this environmental travesty, a stance that sets him against some of the powerful men in the community. Pop's enemies, local bullies, and teenagers up to mischief create several tense moments in the book - but it all comes to a dramatic head when Pops, Kevin and Buzzy set off on a trek through the mountains near the end of the summer. They think they can escape into nature and leave their troubles behind for a while - but trouble finds them in a most dramatic and exciting series of events.
Kevin's feats near the end seemed of near mythical proportions, but it make for a very satisfying ending. For a good man versus nature and man versus man adventure it was quite thrilling. I also got emotionally drawn into the different residents of the town and their conflicts. I'd definitely recommend this read. ( )