“Doko: Trails, Teahouses, And Turmoil At The Top Of The World”

Toby is sixteen. Three months after his birthday celebration “in our Northern California town,” he and his father are enroute to Nepal for what turns out to be the adventure of a lifetime and a young boy’s life or death decision.

Chico novelist Kristi Davids, a world traveler herself, tells the story in Toby’s voice, one that wonders at first what his dad is up to with this surprise trip. “Doko: Trails, Teahouses, And Turmoil At The Top Of The World” ($16.99 in paperback from Palmetto Publishing) finds a somewhat self-centered and resentful Toby discovering the meaning of fatherly love and the crucial importance of looking out for others. It’s a young adult novel with a big heart and a heart-pounding conclusion.

A doko is a basket “to carry things from one town to the next on our backs….” It’s also a metaphor for what Toby must discover about himself. There are times he must be carried—and times he must carry others. Good leaders do that, Toby’s dad tells him.

The family lived in Nepal a decade earlier while Toby’s father “worked on a project with USAID” to help farmers “create more productive and sustainable methods for food production.” Then six-year-old Toby made friends with another boy the same age. He and Prem were buddies and are destined to meet again on Toby’s birthday trip.

The goal is to trek the “Annapurna Circuit” in the Himalayas, taking two weeks to ascend to Thorong La Pass at 17,800 feet and then descend back into an oxygen-rich atmosphere. The hike encompasses daunting cliff trails and many small villages along the way. Unexpected blizzards are constant threats.

Toby and his father, along with the guide Kumar, and, as porters, Prem and a boy Toby befriends named Pratik, work as a team for each leg of the journey. Yet, for Toby, something seems off. Indeed so, and the consequences will be disastrous.

Chiya tea is present at every stop. Ah, the smells: “Cinnamon, cardamon, nutmeg, and cloves….” But as the trek continues, young Toby must put comfort aside and find wisdom deep within his soul. Readers will be enthralled.

Chico visitor conjures a fantastical tale

Toward the end of "The Accidental Snake Thief" ($14.99 in paperback from Don't Forget The Magic Publishing; also available in Amazon Kindle ebook format), British-born author Matheu DeSilva has a character explain the "why" of things. There is a sinister 300-year-old plot afoot, guided by the strange, psychically powerful preacher named Carl Jacobi.

"Everything from medicines and foods to consumer culture and social networks had been specifically designed by Jacobi to keep the 'developed' masses numb, dumb, distracted and under strictly monitored control. ... Carl Jacobi and his friends, whoever they were, were also the real masterminds behind the terrorist attacks that prompted western governments to re-write their laws, terrifying the general public into voting away their freedoms in return for a little phony security. These new laws had been Carl Jacobi's final experiment. He wanted to see if the people were ready and willing to be fully enslaved. They were."

There is little to stand against Jacobi except a fifteen-year-old girl named Hazel and her older brother Caleb. Hazel attends a Jacobi church service and winds up freeing the magical snake Aviveri, one of the ancient Maninkari. "We Maninkari were sent here to bring forth life," he tells Hazel and Caleb telepathically. "From bacteria and plants, to the creatures of the land and water, including, eventually, mankind. All were created from us. ... We provide the building blocks but we do not know the designs. That is for the Architect alone to know."

But greedy men planted stories about evil serpents, "legends that tell people not to question or search for alternatives to the 'truths' they are fed by those in power." Now, when most Maninkari are dead, Carl Jacobi is about to take over the world.

What follows in this first book of the Maninkari Trilogy (theaccidentalsnakethief.com) is, as the Website suggests, a combination of "The Hunger Games" and "Harry Potter." Hazel and Caleb are given special powers by Aviveri, and together, with a few friends, they must search for their father in South America and fight the Snakekiller minions of Jacobi. There's sometimes gruesome action. Be warned: the novel ends with a cliffhanger.

DeSilva was a recent visitor to The Bookstore in downtown Chico, and signed copies of his book may still be available.