PEABODY — A longtime resident and special-education teacher in her 80s has published her first fiction book set on the North Shore, and is working on the second one.
Christine Marano, a resident of Peabody of 27 years, has recently published her first book, “The Boy Called Incerto” with Covenant Books.
Marano describes it as a novella — a 70-page-long “baby novel” — that would be interesting to the general adult population. Newswire.com described the book as a heart-wrenching tale of a devoted teacher who discovers a foundling.
“Children are the focus of our life,” said Marano.
She said that the book is about how precious life is. The book is set in the North Shore and tells the story of a child abandoned by an immigrant mother and a woman who found him on her back porch and then lost him again to the Baby Black Market.
Through the turns of the plot the woman’s sons find the baby — now a grown man — as he investigates who his birth mother was. The story steadily moves along and would be a captivating read on a train or at the beach.
“You can read it in a short period of time. You can go back and think about it,” said Marano.
Marano usually writes after supper or late at night, going back to the finished manuscript several times. In her writing, she draws on her personal experiences and expertise as well as her family stories.
“I have read about Russian orphanages. I am familiar with the court system, foster parents and adoptive parents because I also work for the juvenile system,” Marano said. “This is how I came up with the story.”
Currently, Marano is working on her second book with a working title “A Play on Words.” The events of the book unfold in East Boston in the 1960s and 1970s, Marano said, and tell a story of a biracial couple that struggles with societal perceptions, expectations of their families and their own internal conflicts.
Marano grew up in a triple-decker house on Morris Street in East Boston. She lost her father when she was in high school and she, her mother and sister worked hard to send her to college. Marano was able to attend Boston State College after she made it onto the president’s list of outstanding students.
After college, Marano started working as an English teacher at Brockton High School, where she was assigned to work with a group of boys who had trouble passing a reading test. That led her to pursuing a reading master’s program at Boston University and a career in special education.
Marano worked in public schools in the school districts of Brockton, Chelsea-Everett-Malden, Revere, and Swampscott.
“Teaching and writing have been my passions throughout my career. Needless to say, teaching is my first love,” said Marano. “My students and adults are ‘special’ because once they get a hold of your heart you never let them go.”
At 81, Marano still continues teaching part time in a private-school setting as a reading interventionist, as well as acts as a guardian ad litem (GAL) in the Juvenile Court, helping minors whose parents are not capable of making educational decisions or who were abandoned get the help and education they need. Marano said that she has always been an avid reader and she keeps her mind going by putting 1,000-2,000-piece puzzles together.
To prepare herself for writing her first book, Marano took a writing class at North Shore Community College.
Marano said that her literary accomplishments made her two adult sons and her retired husband very proud.
“They will hold the book and say ‘Ma, we are so proud of you,’” Marano said.
“The Boy Called Incerto” can be purchased on Amazon, Barnes and Noble’s website and on iTunes.
