Avnun for 30 years and author of many books, Alison Berger of Groton recently published her first full-length novel, The Secret of the Pearl, tying religious symbols and an adventurous journey targeted for teenage readers.
A book teaser on Berger’s Web site states, “During a trip to Italy with her professor-aunt, 16-year-old Kristin O’Meara discovers she has a unique gift that both encourages and challenges her. The gift involves both mystery and danger for her and the new friends she meets. She has to make difficult choices about her gift and about what she is asked to do. Through these choices she learns more about herself and wins the attention of an attractive young man. Kristin’s life will never be the same.”
Berger explained, “A young girl goes to Italy with her aunt and before she leaves, her aunt gives her a locket that belonged to [the teenager’s] mother. [The aunt] tells her that she has a gift that her mother had…What happens is, every time [Kristin] is going to have a vision, the locket that she got from her aunt turns into a pearl. [Kristin] gets this feeling that she’s going to get a vision and it happens in different places.”
As Kristin receives the different messages and visions throughout the book, it’s up to her to piece them together and find the answers.
“It’s Kristin’s journey to find out what her gift is and who she is,” Berger continued. “That’s the main theme of the book, but all of these other things are going on meanwhile.” Berger also noted the little bits of romance that are found throughout the book. At the end, Berger added, there’s a surprise and a bit of a twist and—though the book is targeted for teens—she suspects adults may be just as interested.
“It’s for teens…but even the adults that did some editing on it really enjoyed it,” Berger said. “It was really written from young teen up to high school but even adults can enjoy it too…It has a little bit of a religious aspect but it’s adventure, it’s suspense, and it’s a journey.”
Berger obtained a bachelor’s in catechetics from Notre Dame College in Ohio and a master’s degree in Italian from Boston College. She said the first draft of the story was actually written several years ago, and she picked the draft up again because she wanted to work on it while she attending a children’s writing course at the Institute of Children’s Literature in West Redding. Altering and twisting the story to change its approach and feeling, Berger recently finished the book, keeping its message the same.
“Everyone has a gift,” she said. “I felt as though even people that aren’t Catholic would enjoy it just for the story.”
Self-employed with her freelancing, editing, and book-selling company, Lamb Tales, Berger promotes her books on her Web site, www.lambtalesnook.com.