In the suspense drama Footsore on Wisdom Road, author John Meeks drafts a tale that illustrates the power of education, as well as the necessary strength of will that some must have in order to achieve it. The Ellicott Center is doing great things with troubled kids. While the school has a tough task educating the variety of emotionally disturbed children that make up the student body, the patience, persistence, and wisdom of the center's founder, Duncan Rhymes, meets the challenge head on. In Footsore on Wisdom Road the story of the real world challenges that face teachers and students are fully explored in a fast-paced, action-packed, suspense story. Getting through to emotionally disturbed kids is complicated enough, but in the case of Tyler Matthews it was a veritable impossibility—until Rhymes adopts him away from his abusive father. The drama peaks with the threats to Ellicott, based on financial motives, impatience, the search for an easy one-size-fits-all solution to educational problems, and more sinisterly, the revenge plot of a jilted, power-hungry, control-freak father who seeks to get back at Ellicott, and the man who stole his son away. The central themes of Footsore on Wisdom Road include issues that many students and their schools face. Most notably the value of the human connection between teaching staff and the children they are charged with educating and inspiring. This connection is of utmost importance for real learning to occur. The book juxtaposes this significant bond with the stress of the many threats to the student-teacher connection. Meek layers his novel with a myriad of dramatic story lines, creating a whirlwind effect of suspenseful, interesting hooks. How they will all play out is the ultimate cliffhanger that climaxes amid multiple surprises and plot twists, as well as a touch of humor.
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