Patrick Gabridge (pgabridge on QT) has signed with agent Regina Brooks of Serendipity Literary Agency.
Dear Agent,
Eleven-year-old Tyra is stuck spending the summer with her irascible Grandpa Rudy in a lakeside town where she's the only black person (she's adopted). It's clearly going to be the worst summer ever. And a weird one, too. Every night, Rudy disappears into the woods, hauling tools and maps. He's searching for something, and Tyra desperately wants to know what it is.
One night, Tyra follows her grandfather and discovers him digging for an old bootlegger's buried treasure. He swears her to secrecy, but soon Tyra leads her new summer friend, Cory, to Grandpa Rudy's dig site. After being chased deep into the woods by an enraged Rudy, Tyra and Cory uncover clues that lead to Emerald Eddie's secret stash.
Grandpa Rudy isn't the only person in Spirit Lake obsessed with Emerald Eddie's legendary treasure, and it becomes a race to see who will find it first. Someone has been poking around the excavation site and has even broken into Rudy's house. Soon, Tyra, Rudy, and their friends find themselves in very real danger. Only a great sacrifice will allow them to escape unharmed. Through all the ups and downs of their treasure hunt, Tyra and Grandpa Rudy ultimately realize they need each other a lot more than they ever expected.
Buried Treasure is a middle grade summer adventure novel of about 44,000 words that touches on race, adoption, and intergenerational relationships within families. In addition to reaching a general middle grade readership, this book's exploration of race and transracial adoption will make it of great interest to the numerous multi-racial and adoptive families who eagerly search for fiction with relatable characters for their children.
My first novel, Tornado Siren, was published by Behler Publications in 2006. I'm an award-winning playwright—thirty of my plays are published and have been used by thousands of schools, students, and teachers in performance and competition. I work closely with a number of play publishers who are deeply tied into the youth market (Brooklyn, Playscripts, YouthPlays, and Heuer). I'm also a transracial adoptive parent of two children.
Please let me know if you'd like to read Buried Treasure.
Thanks for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Patrick Gabridge