T I M C U M M I N G S | W R I T E R
When his younger brother Baxter starts having seizures and receives visits from 'the lightning people,' who descend from the sky and show him three strange symbols, fourteen-year-old Kirby rallies his crew of brilliant theatre kids to put up a play to raise money for a seizure-alert dog, and their production opens
an unexpected portal.
Advance Praise:
"In Tim Cummings’s captivating YA novel, THE LIGHTNING PEOPLE PLAY, fourteen-year-old Kirby will stop at nothing to help his little brother, Bax, who has epilepsy. Determined to raise funds for a seizure dog that could change Bax’s life, Kirby enlists his theater friends to create a mesmerizing play that reflects the other-worldly portal that Bax seems to enter when having a seizure. Kirby’s voice resonates with raw emotion as his synesthetic experiences draw him (and us!) deep into the complexities of his brother's condition. Lyrical prose mirrors the magic of the story, beautifully intertwining serious themes with a unique, well-paced, and often humorous storyline. This is a tender yet powerful tale that honors Cummings’s own brother whom he lost to epilepsy, and it serves as a reminder that with compassion and courage, even the youngest among us can make a difference." - Kimberly Behre Kenna, award-winning author of Jett Jamison and the Secret Storm
"The narrator is sarcastic yet sweet, the plot funny yet scary. There are hilarious theatre kids with crushes on each other and villainous bullies roaming the halls. There are kinda heroic teens confronting mysterious symbols from the other side (maybe?). In other words:
THE LIGHTNING PEOPLE PLAY has absolutely everything you’d want
in a YA novel, and then some."- Josh Berk, Edgar Award nominee and author of The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin and Camp Murderface