An award-winning author is highlighting the plight of a middle-school aged military child using adventure to escape being an outcast at school.
“The Secret Doors of Cannondale,” the first installment in a trilogy authored by Stephanie Brick, shines a heroic light on a military child named Adeline Perle. The book’s 12-year-old protagonist ultimately finds herself uprooted to an old home. Her Navy mother’s military orders send the family to a mansion full of hidden rooms, secret doors, and portals. Brick weaves relatable subjects into her middle-grade fantasy novel, including being a loner, wanting to belong, friendship and self-worth.
“The book is not about Adeline being a military child. That’s a part of who she is but it’s not what defines her identity,” Brick said.
She added that children and adult readers from military families, and children from non-military families, have expressed how much Adeline resonates with them as a character.
“She [Adeline] celebrates what makes military kids special, but at the same time, she shows that there are other similarities between everyone,” Brick explained.
Brick reflected on her childhood-writing adventures when she would craft construction paper books and staple them together with her mother’s favorite green stapler. Years have passed and she now expresses that books offer a safe place for young readers to explore internal and external struggles, such as ones that Adeline endures.
“One of the great takeaways that it’s hard for me to look past is that you’re not alone,” Brick said of her book, also mentioning those who are often displaced. “You can see right here on the pages that Adeline understands what you’re going through.”
Brick, a Maryland-based author, has been busy engaging in school, library, and community events, especially those on or around military bases. She described her literary adventure as “amazing.” It has also taken Brick into virtual and international spaces to engage with military children all over the globe, ultimately broadening her reach.
“I didn’t realize there was such little representation of military kids in mainstream fiction until I was at these schools. The librarians and the faculty there are the ones who told me that books like this don’t exist in the market right now and haven’t for a generation,” Brick shared.
“The Secret Doors of Cannondale” was awarded the gold medal for Best Children’s Book (ages eight to 12) by Readers’ Choice Book Awards. Although the book celebrates youthful curiosity, it merges Brick’s other skill sets.
Brick is a licensed architect and leading DOD expert in salutogenic design, which involves evidence-based design strategy to improve human health and well-being in the built environment. She says that her most fulfilling career work has been having an impact through initiatives in her field for service members.
“When I started thinking about ‘The Secret Doors of Cannondale,’ I wanted to continue to give back to this community,” Brick added. “This is just my way of saying thank you.”
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