I love all things lefse and I love writing, so I’m excited to announce that I have again combined my loves into a new book. This book is a novel, my first, and I’m thrilled.
The novel is titled Final Rounds: On Love, Loss, Life, and, Yes, Lefse. It is a short novel for middle school children and older — and I like to think it’s a good adult read, as well. Final Rounds is about grief, a joyous book on grief with 630 rounds of lefse rolled in. The novel begins:
My Papa passed away today, I don’t know what to do.
“My Poober-Pahbers, WRITE!” he’d say. “Writing finds the you that’s true.”
The narrator is 12-year-old Amaya, who doesn’t write or read well because of dyslexia. But she forces herself to write, as Papa, her grandfather, would have wanted. To prepare for her writing task, Amaya makes lefse the way Papa had taught her. Then she faces the blank page and lets her hand move freely — and surprises herself by writing in rhymes! Was it the lefse that led to the rhyming?
She recounts a day-night-day three years prior when she and Papa were housebound by a record snowfall. In this storm, they made 630 rounds of lefse that, as a Christmas tradition, they would give to every household in their small town in Minnesota.
During this lefse lollapalooza, Papa explained his eight rather wacky rules of life to guide Amaya. For example, Rule No. 4 is “Remember KABLOOEY.” What the heck is KABLOOEY?
KABLOOEY’S the thing that cancels your phooey.
If you’re kinda blue, just look for KABLOOEY.
KABLOOEY is humor, hilarity, wit.
When packing for life, load oodles of it.
After Papa defined Rule No. 6, “Know a KNOT, “ his telephone rang. It was Mrs. Taylor, an elderly neighbor near his farm. Her furnace had gone out. Papa and Amaya saddled up their Belgian horses and rode through the storm to pick up Mrs. Taylor and return to Papa’s for the night. The next day, the three of them finished rolling what was left of the 28 bowls of lefse dough. As they rolled, Mrs. Taylor had Amaya and Papa spellbound by the story of purchasing her black hat three decades earlier, which at the time was a defining moment in the life of this young, black teacher from Mississippi.
The story ends on the day of Papa’s funeral. Amaya had wanted to do something special for Papa on this day, and after writing about Papa, his eight Rules, and this magical lefse-making moment with the horses and the snow and Mrs. Taylor, Amaya figures out what that something special is — and it has to do with lefse.
Final Rounds is a tender book on a tough topic, but it the only book on grief that will teach you a tip or two about making lefse … in verse.
I will keep you posted on the progress of Final Rounds as it is goes though edits and proofs. Expect publication to be this summer.