Take a trip back to the late sixties and catch up with Miranda Billie Taylor, now known as Billie, in Amanda West Lewis’ newest upper middle grade/teen book Focus. Click. Wind.

It’s 1968, Bobby Kennedy has just been killed and the war in Vietnam is raging. Protests are erupting all over college campuses in the United States and Billie gets caught up in the student protest at Columbia University. Scared and fed up with life in New York City, her mother uproots her to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Determined to make her way back home and fiercely opposed to what is happening overseas, Billie gets caught up in in her activism.

Amanda West Lewis allows readers to reunite with Missy, no Billie, from These are Not the Words and grow with her in Focus.Click.Wind.. I love how readers get an opportunity to find out what happens with Billie as she gets older. The stories are both very much standalone pieces, you don’t have to read one to understand the other. Readers get an opportunity to grow with the story as These are Not the Words is written for a middle grade audience and Focus. Click. Wind, a young adult one. There are not many stories that have readers grow through such different historical periods. Its an interesting trip back in time.

I love Billie in this story. It’s a beautiful coming of age story set in a tumultuous time in history, where young people were using their voices and demanded to be heard. Billie demands to be heard. She is strong and fierce in her convictions and demands the same of everyone around her. She doesn’t see the grey areas. I love how strong her voice is, it was hard not to get caught up in her emotions while reading. You could feel the tension and the push and pull of being a young person in a time of so much confusion, death and upheaval.

I love how Amanda West Lewis uses Billies camera as the vehicle for her activism. The repeating focus, click, wind throughout the story brings the reader to the viewfinder and engages with them through the camera lens as well as through her eyes.

Focus. Click. Wind. will inspire readers to learn more about the war in Vietnam and the activisim that came out of that time period. If they live in Toronto, its an inspiration to see how Yorkville has changed so dramatically over time.