An action-packed adventure story with an exciting film location setting. Finn is a free-running black belt, with a talent for acting-but when his big break arrives, it's not the role he was expecting at all. Recruited as a stunt double, he's pushed to his limits-scaling walls at high speed, jumping from dizzying heights, and diving into rocky waters-all without any safety gear. He's determined to push himself, but as the stunts get more dangerous, the lines between movie and reality are really starting to blur, and it becomes clear that he'll be luckily to escape this shoot with his life. A brand new adventure for readers aged 9+, from the author of The Scarlet Files.
Explores the work done by stunt doubles, who are specially trained to take the place of actors and actresses during dangerous scenes in movies and television shows.
Defusing a bomb, hunting down dangerous criminals, jumping off a cliff - it's all just a day's work for some daredevils. Explore several of the world's most dangerous occupations - from training and education to gear used and more.
Poetry. "Travis Denton makes me think that attention is akin to affection, at least here, where loss and damage continually lead us deeper into the world, not away from it. While he has a fluid and curious mind, I think he roves to stay, that a belief in the value of all things underlies these peripatetic poems. Some poets write nervously, out of fear. I think Travis Denton writes largely out of joy, to gather and bring what he finds back for us to share. This book is a harvest."--Bob Hicok
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, acclaimed horse trainer and show rider Martha Crawford Cantarini was among the busiest of Hollywood's elite corps of female stunt riders. She was the regular stunt double for such actresses as Eleanor Parker, Anne Baxter and Shirley MacLaine, appearing in films ranging from Elvis Presley's debut feature Love Me Tender to the epic Western The Big Country. Martha also hosted a Las Vegas television program in the 1960s, while her palomino Frosty gained fame as "the gambling horse" after rolling a seven at the Thunderbird Casino craps table. This fascinating insider's memoir of the American entertainment industry recounts Martha's personal and professional associations with Clark Gable, Ronald Reagan, Jean Simmons, and other Hollywood luminaries.
Poems about being a survivor and the choices we make to protect ourselves, our homes, and our hearts. Who wouldn't want a metaphorical stunt double to take the perilous fall that comes with the pain of loss or profound disappointment? The poems in When the Heart Needs a Stunt Double by Diane DeCillis consider resourceful ways in which we become our own stunt double and explore through a poet's eyes the anatomy of the mind, body, and soul. Although many of these poems investigate loss and heartbreak, this book is not about being a victim. It's about how we not only survive our most challenging moments but how we thrive in spite of them. These are poems about all of the ways our hearts both help us and betray us during major life events: dealing with divorce, the death of a loved one, separation from those closest to you, or with the agonizing experience of memory loss. The speaker appreciatively observes "how hard the muscle has worked / lifting and lowering the weight of love and sorrow." DeCillis writes that loss can feel like your heart is limping "like a wounded animal / before you sink into the shelter of your own shadow." But with every loss in these poems comes rebirth—a beautiful, sensory-rich wildflower garden of new breaths and experiences. The character of the heart is depicted as a piece of human anatomy at the same time it's portrayed as its own world; an entire planet. DeCillis personifies the mitral, aortic, and pulmonary valves, describing our bodies as blooming with vegetation, a recursive image of living things thriving inside living things. When the Heart Needs a Stunt Double takes us on a journey of what it means to be fully human. It touches upon the gifts we find in humor, nature, art, food, and how we celebrate the beauty of our scars. These are love poems: to others, to the self, to the body. DeCillis makes it clear that wounds need attention and care, but that loss always strengthens us. This collection will be admired by poetry lovers of all kinds, and those who enjoy modern and corporeal love poems.
