Friends Forever: Adventures

Marilyn Martin's stunningly evocative ``Friends Forever Adventures" transported me back some 50 years to my own childhood and the adventures my best friend and I encountered. Certainly, the Colorado and Wyoming setting for Alexandra (Alex) Tanner and her Navajo classmate, Skylyn (Sky) Eaglefeather, is a far cry from the coal fields of central-eastern Pennsylvania, but I found that their experiences of exploration paralleled ours. Although my friend and I went our separate ways and now live a continent apart -- he in California and I in New York State -- we remain friends forever, just as I sense Alexandra and Skylyn will. In this second of the ``Friends Forever" series, Ms. Martin describes the symbiotic relationship between these young teens and the pristine Rockies and its denizens. Her word tones make us spectators to nature's splendors. Her careful placement of the characters into this fragile paradise confirms, through them, her respect for the environment. ``The silver-coated (wolf) lifted his muzzle high and sang, advertising his need for a mate, wanting his very own family to love and cherish," she writes. Just as my friend and I came to know and respect the inhabitants of the woods around our little town, so, too, do Alexandra and Skylyn. Just as we took on projects to help residents of our community, so, too, do Alex and Sky with their Horses for the Handicapped effort. When I read excerpts of Friends Forever Adventures with my grandchildren, I knew Ms. Martin and I had made contact when they asked: ``Grandpop, do you think we could ride dog-sleds in Yellowstone some day, just like Sky and Alex?"