Fast Backward
FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD BOBBY HASTINGS witnesses an atomic explosion near a top secret New Mexico army base in July of 1945. Terrified, he soon heads off on his bike for home, only to encounter something that rivals the blast for drama. A girl his age stands naked at the side of the lonely desert road: underweight, unwell, and speaking with a German accent. In the coming days, she unveils an impossible story about time travel and a heartbreaking outcome of the war. She begs people to believe her warning and prevent the awful future she claims to know too well. But even if they do believe her, and the story is true, the biggest question remains: can history be undone?
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David Patneaude is the popular author of nine novels and one collection of stories for young (and not so young) readers. His first novel, Someone Was Watching, was published in 1993. It went on to be named to eight state young readers’ lists and win awards in South Dakota and Utah. It was the runner-up to The Giver for the 1995-96 Rebecca Caudill Award in Illinois. The Texas Library Association named it to its ten-year “Best of the Best” Texas Lone Star Reading List in 2005. It became an audio book and was published in Germany, France, and the Netherlands. In 2002 Dreamchaser Entertainment produced it as a movie of the same name.
David’s other books have been nominated to dozens of young readers’ lists and have been recognized by various organizations and reviewers. They’ve been honored by the New York Public Library, the Society of School Librarians International, the Winnetka (Illinois) Public Library’s “One Book, Two Villages” program, the Seattle and King County Public Libraries’ “Global Reading Challenge” programs, and the Washington State Public Library. Over the years, he’s visited hundreds of schools and appeared at numerous conferences for both young readers and friends of young readers to talk about writing and reading and his books. When he’s not at a school or library or conference, or in a coffee shop
writing, or out on the trail thinking about writing, he’s home in Woodinville, Washington with his wife Judy, a middle school librarian. Fast Backward is his tenth novel.