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My biography/criticism of Gra­ham Sal­is­bury is com­ing out on June 28. It’s the lat­est in the Scare­crow Stud­ies in Young Adult Lit­er­a­ture (#20), which has fea­tured sim­i­lar books on other YA authors such as Robert Cormier, Karen Hesse, M.E. Kerr, Orson Scott Card, and many oth­ers (this series began awhile ago as the Twayne Series on YA novelists).

I’ll be happy to get a copy of the book in my hands. Besides writ­ing the book, I also type­set the photo ready copy, an under­tak­ing that took more time than writ­ing the book–seriously! Inter­view­ing Sal­is­bury, who is known as Sandy, was a cool expe­ri­ence. He is an amaz­ingly open man, with an unusual take on life. You’ll know what I mean if you read his sto­ries. They have a dif­fer­ent aesthetic.

The only frus­tra­tion in all of this is get­ting the online book­stores like Ama­zon to post accu­rate infor­ma­tion about the book. The cover art is miss­ing, and the descrip­tion is vague, to say the least. Here’s a link to Ama­zon so that you can see what I mean: Gra­ham Sal­is­bury: Island Boy (Scare­crow Stud­ies in Young Adult Lit­er­a­ture, No. 20)

Here’s what the cover art looks like, fol­lowed by a more detailed descrip­tion of the book.

Gra­ham Sal­is­bury, win­ner of the Scott O’Dell and Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards, grew up in Hawaii dur­ing the 1950’s, and the lion’s share of his fic­tion is set there. He writes about boys of all races try­ing to carve an iden­tity for them­selves and strug­gling to make moral deci­sions as they grow into manhood.

The first sec­tion of this book chron­i­cles the labyrinthine path of Salisbury’s life and career: from bare­foot island boy to col­lege dropout, from bub­blegum pop musi­cian to school­teacher, and from real estate man­ager to young adult author. The book then offers a crit­i­cal con­text for Salisbury’s work, dis­cussing his nov­els in terms of plot and style: ana­lyz­ing lit­er­ary themes and exam­in­ing crit­i­cal responses to his work. Salisbury’s use of arche­types and the com­ing of age sto­ries that dom­i­nate his work are explored in depth. Fans are also treated to a peek at some of Salisbury’s future projects.

Librar­i­ans, teach­ers, and teen read­ers will find this crit­i­cal biog­ra­phy to be a use­ful resource for the library, class­room, and ref­er­ence bookshelf.

Table of Con­tents for Gra­ham Sal­is­bury: Island Boy

Pref­ace: Aloha
Chronol­ogy
Intro­duc­tion: The Islands
1. Island Boy: The Life and Career of Gra­ham Sal­is­bury
2. Hai Moolelo: Blue Skin of the Sea and Island Boyz
3. Makuakane and Keiki Kane: Lord of the Deep
4. Ohana and Kanaka e: Shark Bait and Jun­gle Dogs
5. Mana olana: Under the Blood-Red Sun and Eyes of the Emperor
6. One Hero: The Mon­o­myth in the Nov­els of Gra­ham Sal­is­bury
Con­clu­sion: Aloha Again
Selected Bib­li­og­ra­phy
Index
About the Author

Order­ing Info: $35.00 Cloth 0–8108-5338–8 June 2005 136pp. Avail­able from Amazon.com