Soul Stories: Safari to Mara and Aria of the Horned Toad

Majestic, touching, fanciful, courageous, heart-wrenching, meaningful, soulful. These words flow easily from the reverie I feel upon completion of Elizabeth Clark-Sterns fine new work of fiction, Soul Stories. These are two tales of young daughters from different continents, one devastated by her mothers sudden loss, the other watching helplessly as her mother is slowly pulled from her, morphing into something she can no longer recognize as mother. These painful events call upon each to embark upon healing journeys deep into natures interior spaces--one onto the African plains, the other into the vastness of the imagination. I am reminded of the lonely early childhood of the analytical psychologist, Carl Jung, whose deep dissociation from relationships was healed only through his emersion in fantasy life and play. This is the kind of psychological depth that the author attempts to reach, and I believe she achieves it. Clark-Stern the playwright is evident throughout, in the rich and evocative scenes, character development, and psychological insight--astounding given the brief cross-section of life portrayed in the two novellas. This is a book that is written from the heart and touches the soul. Its good therapy! One that I gladly recommend to my patients, colleagues, family, and friends. Kenneth Kimmel, Jungian psychoanalyst, author of Eros and the Shattering Gaze: Transcending Narcissism

Like the mentors and magical helpers who guide seekers through unknown worlds, author Elizabeth Clark-Stern captures readers in her well-woven net of spell-binding words and hauls us on board a book of dreams. In Soul Stories we discover two novellas about two young girls--each with an absent mother and a strong father--who must find within themselves the wisdom and courage to understand the harsh realities of the adult world. Each girl has a wonderful guide. In Safari to Mara, Mara rides a zebra named Lo Lo into her future. In Aria of the Horned Toad, Beatrice rides a toad named Custard into her present. In the heat of the African plains, Mara finds solace in the land that cradles the Masai. In the heat of central Texas, Beatrice finds solace in a river of dreams that flows unseen through the streets of Austin. Mara feels abandoned. Beatrice feels unwanted. Their souls cry out to be filled with love in Africa where going on safari might mean watching cruel nature take its course and in Austin where coming home at dusk might mean staring at a mothers empty chair at the dinner table. In Safari to Mara, Clark-Stern immerses readers in a dazzling landscape of predators and prey where life and death manifest as an infinite dance. Its a lot for Mara to absorb and comprehend. In Aria of the Horned Toad, she serves readers a thirst-quenching eye-opener of well-shaken reality and make-believe. Its a difficult puzzle for Beatrice to put together. In her Masai world, Mara is on the cusp of womanhood where she is expected to prepare for marriage. She has other ideas. She seeks a future wide enough for larger dreams. In her Austin neighborhood, circumstances force Beatrice to shoulder adult-level responsibilities before she is done being a child. She is willing to do whats required of her, though she seeks a here-and-now where children can be loved and safe. These extraordinary stories are for dreamers and for those who want to become dreamers. They speak to the pure child in us. They can be read to children on dark and stormy nights and spun into tall tales around summer campfires where the dark forest around us encourages us to believe the veil between reality and dream is thin veil. Wherever they are read, told and re-told, the disparate yet similar stories in Soul Stories are a joy to the ear that hears the spell-binding words and to the minds eye that sees Clark-Sterns beautiful, deeply moving worlds.

My first encounter with Elizabeth Clark Sterns work was the entrancing movie, Heartland, for which she was story editor. In Soul Stories, I was immediately taken by Maras and Beatrices voices, and remained engaged till the ends of both delightful stories. Though complex and deep enough for adults, the tales portray common human struggles in a magical way that Im sure will amuse and inspire my granddaughters, aged 7 and 9. I hope they develop some of the gumption and spirit shown by the heroines in Soul Stories. I highly recommend Soul Stories to anyone who loves fine writing and compelling stories. Carol Morrison, North Bend, WA

Its been a while since I was as engrossed as I was with Soul Stories such that I stayed up way too late reading. The book includes two coming-of-age stories: In one, a young girl of the African Masai seeks a new way in the world after the death of her mother. In another, three children in the steamy, rural south whose parents were beset by addiction seek to save themselves and their parents. Both are stories worlds away from me as a middle aged man from the urban north, yet both easily found a place in my heart, like modern myths. Young and old can enjoy this book as a light read, and at the same time, like good myths, these stories effortlessly whisper messages about how we can all listen to our imagination and our dreams to find our way in this imperfect and too-often painful world. Get ready for to enjoy a good read and to be inspired.

Elizabeth Clark-Stern has beautifully crafted two glorious voices for the narrators in these two moving novellas. Listening to young Beatrice (from ARIA) is no less captivating than hearing the voice of young Huck Finn as he spins his tale. And the voice of (the equally young) Mara, half a world away, is as compelling as any of Jane Austens heroines. Clark-Stern has captured in these characters both the unbounded joys of childhood and the hard lessons of life we all must confront, told with humor, compassion and love. The stories transcend age and ethnicity, are appropriate for anyone from YA to RA (real adult), and provide quick fun reads with an equal dose of thinking and learning. Most highly recommended.

Be inspired by these two touching stories of brave girls confronting impossible odds. In the first we travel in wildlife-filled Africa with our heroine Mara, and her adventures left my heart pounding and bursting with joy. In the second we meet a Zippy-like irrepressible Pudding whose imagination and courage will leave you breathless. These tales can be read on multiple levels, and will interest readers of all ages.

I finished reading Soul Stories, Elizabeth Clark-Sterns beautiful tales several days ago. I have since been carrying the young heroines, Mara of the vast African plains and Beatrice, Pudding of the sultry American South in my heart. As I let their voices continue to live in me I find myself more and more moved by their courage, imaginations and faith in something moving them toward healing from deep within. These two young women, though worlds apart share the human task that in some hidden way unites us all, finding our own particular pathway through loss and grief and growing up each step of the way. Their tender years and Clark-Sterns rare gift to weave such poignant depth and wholeness while offering the reader a delightful journey into their lives is masterful. I highly recommend these stories to readers of all ages. They gently and creatively offer openings to the use of dreams, myth, imagination and nature in the process of growing and healing. I am grateful to have this new resource to offer my psychotherapy clients and will recommend it to other therapists.

Take a deep, cleansing breath, and relax. Now, picture yourself on the Masai Mara, one of the great plains of Africa. Feel the warm earth beneath your feet. There are a million stars blazing in the ebony sky, casting moonshadows over the great plain. Here the distant snorting of wildebeest; the cackle of hyenas--the rumbling roar of the lion. Take another deep breath, and smell the slightly sweet and not unpleasant scent of animal dung, sere grass, earth. Can you see it? Hear it? Smell it? Feel it? This is exactly how I reacted to Elizabeth Clark-Sterns wondrous short story, Safari to Mara, one of the two stories in Soul Stories: Safari to Mara & Aria of the Horned Toad. Safari to Mara is the story of Mara, the 10-year-old daughter of a Masai tribesman, and her journey to find her place in the world that is rapidly changing. Maras grandmother wants her to shave her hair and prepare to become the wife of a traditional Masai tribesman. But Mara and her parents have different a different idea. Maras father, a safari tour guide, takes her to work with him as his assistant. Shortly thereafter, her mother dies of a fever. When Mara sees a baby zebra orphaned when his mother is snatched by a crocodile, Mara sneaks the baby, also wounded by the croc, into the back of the safari jeep and takes him home. Grief-stricken over the loss of her own mother, the young girl nurses the zebra orphan, whom she calls Lo-Lo, back to health. What follows is a beautiful tale of the devastation of loss, the power of friendship, and what it means to find home. Clark-Sterns word place the reader right in the heart of the story setting. I do not like this safari tent cabin, Mara says. The floor is made of thick mats, no Earth beneath our feet ... The tent cabin smells of a thing my father calls `cleanser. Our house of grass and Earth and dung smells of grass and Earth and dung. I cannot see the sun, the moon, the stars, in this dark cloth house. In our dung house I can see all of these things through the tiny hole, so we always know who is gone, who is here in the night sky. I will not spoil the story by saying how it ends for Mara and Lo-Lo. I will say, however, that rarely does a story make me cry. I shed copious tears when Safa to Mara drew to a close. The second story, Aria of the Horned Toad, is very different from the first. This story is not set in the real world, but rather, a fantasy world created by the young, imaginative Beatrice, the super smart Reese, and Reeses little brother, Elmer Per. All three children are battling their own demons: Reese and Pers parents are in jail on drug charges, and Beatrices mother is plunging into the dark depths of alcoholism. The story opens with Beatrice dreaming a horned lizard--what she calls a horney toad--crawling out of her eye. When she awakens, she searches for, and finds, the horned toad, whom she names Custard. But Custard is no ordinary horned toad. `Hes magic, Reese says. `How can you tell? Beatrice asks. `Just look at him. Hes harboring a great secret. What follow is a grand romp through fantasy land as the children search for the Dreammaker, hoping he can mend their troubled parents through dreams of love for their families and loathing of their vices. Along the way the children meet and befriend Captain Sublime and his giant pet bats Praline, Ecstasy, and Valentine. But is Sublime the dreammaker? Or does he want the children for his own sinister purposes? Aria of the Horned Toad reminded me of Philip Pullmans The Golden Compass with a bit of The Wizard of Oz thrown in. But make no mistake: this fantasy is all the creation of Clark-Stern, and a truly golden fantasy it is as the children learn, like Mara in the story before them, the power of friendship and the devastation of the loss of a parent (because while Mara lost her mother in death, Beatrice, Reese, and Per have lost their parents to crime and addiction). They also learn a hard lesson about being responsible for your own actions, and how no matter how badly they may want it, they cannot change the behavior of others. Soul Stories: Safari to Mara & Aria of the Horned Toad is an exquisite book written with heartfelt, poetic prose. The plots are engaging; the children in both stories loveable, brave, and flawed. I wanted to hold them, to protect them; yet all the while, I wanted to travel with them through the world of their stories to help them learn what they must learn. I wanted to walk out onto the Masai Mara with Mara and Lo-Lo; I wanted to sleep on Custards belly and listen to him sing, for he, too, is searching for acceptance, to be loved for who he is and not what he should, or could, be. This book is pure magic. I not only recommend it highly, I beg you to read it. You will not be disappointed. (This book was supplied to me by the publisher for review)