Esther Jantzen

Walk: Jamie Bacon's Secret Mission on the Camino de Santiago Esther Jantzen

Jamie Bacon is angry that his parents are making him walk 500 miles in Spain as part of their home-schooling plan. He's especially disappointed that, unexpectedly, Dad can't come along on the trip, so he'll be with just Mom and his sister Lily. But when Jamie meets a priest, Father Diego, on the plane and hears the backstory of the Camino de Santiago, he begins to get intrigued. And when he naively agrees to the request by two pilgrims to secretly carry a heavily taped envelope, unopened, all the way to Santiagode Compostela, Jamie is stuck with keeping his word.

Multiple missteps plague Jamie on the Way of St. James (the English name for the pilgrimage). He injures Lily, causes a car accident, loses the envelope twice, and gets the family lost. Like most Camino pilgrims, Jamie discovers every day on the route holds adventure, revelation, elation, and exhaustion. He meets quirky and kind and scholarly pilgrims; he learns legends and history. He sees marvels of architecture and explores castles, churches, and a cave. And he's heroic, too, when he rescues a child from a charging bull, saves a puppy, prevents vandalism, talks his mother out of a panic attack, and more.

There are surprises in WALK. I don't want to spoil a reader's enjoyment, so I won't disclose much more here. But when Jamie is finally in the holy city of Santiago de Compostela, after the family performs traditional pilgrim rituals in the world-class cathedral, it's time for him to deliver that troublesome envelope. Finding out what he's inadvertently carried the whole way produces Jamie's biggest surprise. The book ends with Jamie on television, honest and humble, and Mom, Dad, and Lily laughing together as they view his triumph from their hotel room.