Keep Eyes Behind: A Mystery

Beverlee Patton

Author, Educator, Storyteller

Beverlee Patton''s writing reflects a lifetime of interacting with people of diverse cultures. During a career in community development and teacher training she lived in Grenada, India, Nepal, and Namibia for more than twenty years. As a storyteller she uses seemingly simple story lines to convey complex concepts. In her novel, Keep Eyes Behind, innocent children face devastating religious bigotry that unravels the life of their immigrant family. In order to survive they must gain mutual trust and act with moral courage. "Mistreatment of others," says Patton, "Is a form of bullying whether individuals, communities, or nations are involved. The struggle to transform bullying into moral action has been a challenge in my life and is a theme of my fiction."

A young girl finding her place in a threatening world, a noble quest, a community persecuted for its beliefs, a distant land, a different culture - this story of a young girl finding her place in a threatening world transcends differences of time and place.  Her noble quest should inspire adults as well as younger readers.

Wonderful story of survival, cultural assimilation and very relevant to so many families and children having to flee war and start over in a new country. The story provides extraordinary detail conveying a sense of time and place in 19th century Persia to the current cultural and racial struggles of todayin America. 

Beverlee Patton has written a wonderful adventure story that also carries powerful messages for today's world.  On one level, we ride along with two magical children as they perform a crucial task for their beloved community. We meet heroic horses, disguised villians, and trusted allies. Ms Patton gives us the feeling, foods and culture of the Middle East, making tangible a child's experience of the textures of place.  At the same time, we feel the impacts on a minority group of persecution in a time, much like our own, when prejudice and domination are afoot.  How the children, and the community of their adults, resist injustice through solidarity and imagination, speaks of the possibilities for courage even at the worst of times. I heartily recommend Keep Eyes Behind, for all ages. 

My wife and I both read Keep Eyes Behind by Beverlee Patton and we both found it captivating and insightful at many levels. It is a highly entertaining and wonderful novel in the way the action moves in waves of exciting suspense in the urgent quest by two children and their uncle to find a unique horse while avoiding the assasins who are after them. There are also shadea of magical realism carefully added to highlight the sense of wonder that pervades an adventure that takes place in only three days.  We both appreciate the way Ms. Patton effectively makes the main characters come alive with full personalities with just a few sentences. In addition, the author very thoughtfully structured her book to facilitate the reader's immerson into the story. There is a list of characters, a glossary of terms, a map and a map at the beginnig of the book. An Afterwards enhances the reading experience by providing historical context and sources for the novel. Finally, to further immerse yourself into a Middle Eastern reality you may want to make one or more of the eleven recipes and enjoy them while you read the book! We plan to use this book in our classes at the college and junior high level because they appeal equallty to young people and adults. We can't wait to read her next novel. 

Keep Eyes Behind was much different than I thought it would be.  I expected more of a children's book, but what I found instead was a book that kept my adult mind very interested. Ms Patton keeps you enthralled about what to expect next, while also helping us to remember how cruel humanity often is toward anyone who thinks differently The story of two children and their uncle who are sent on a special mission to find the perfect horse for their beloved master to ride out of the city is a mission with many tests and difficulties that in the end prove the children's virtues and strengths.  A fine adventure for children of all ages - even older adults like me. 

Find yourself immersed in the lives of two refugee children from a persecuted minority group in nineteenth century Iraq. This novel is marketed as appealing to young adults, but the story is packed with plenty of mature intrigue, explores the issues that inhabit persecution and prejudice, and comes loaded with enough fascinating cultural informaiton as well to keep adults of my senior age turning and returning to the pages. I have to mention that my two granddaughters - a teen and a pre-teen - both loved this story, which is related by a child made wise by circumstances and a mission that would challenge any of us....also, of course, because it involves a very special horse. 

If you have ever wondered what it would be like to live during a period when the prophecies of religion were fulfilled or when a new faith was born, this book might give you a glimpse into such a time. The children and their families in this story are enmeshed in the events preceding the fulfilment of those prophecies. Called to action because of their unique abilities with horses, the children and their uncle are tasked with finding the perfect horse (in only three days) to carry their beloved leader out of Iraq. Faced with persecution and prejudice (which still exists today), they must face unimaginable dangers, including treachery within their own community. It is a wonderful story filled with intrigue as well as historical, cultural, and religious insights. I loved it and couldn't put it down.