"Fifteen Keys"         

In the year 1890, from a remote village in the Pacific Northwest, three boys leave on a quest, a rite of passage, to find fifteen keys that will allow them to return home and become leaders in their community. Fifteen Keys is an adventure fantasy for middle-grade and young teens, filled with whimsy, meant as an introduction to mindfulness themes, complete at 66,000 words. 

         The elders of Black Dog send their seventeen-year-olds into the wilderness fully prepared to survive for one year. Hank doesn’t want to participate in the ritual and argues with his father. Reluctantly, he accepts his fate rather than face shame for refusing to go. His decision to leave is eased by the offer from his younger brother and cousin to secretly join him. His mother covertly provides him with cryptic clues as to the location of the keys. 

         The boys work through adversities, enter fantasy worlds and meet strange people like Messyman, who lives in complete disorder in the clouds, and a man named Happiness, who resides alone inside a tree and always knows where to find joy. They meet Have-Little, find Too-Much, and eventually discover Enough, who introduces them to the difference between wants and needs. They visit silence. A girl named Golden Skye tests Hank’s humility. Their journey is prolonged, never sure of the correct direction, will they find all fifteen keys and be able to return home? 

With the help of Mother’s clues, the boys discover that the keys are ethical values.      The adventures are allegorical. Mindfulness is a popular topic on social media

with many websites on the Internet. Medical ethical issues were an important part of my medical practice as a neurologist, and I frequently participated on the ethics committee at our hospital. Apart from medical ethics, my inspiration for writing Fifteen Keys came from the study of Mussar, a Jewish ethical study. The virtues considered there are universal and a requirement for being the best human one can be. I wrote and published short stories illustrating the virtues as I studied them and enjoyed reading those stories to local middle school and adult groups interested in the mindfulness themes. I have chaired ethical study groups for the past eight years. I frequently use excerpts from Fifteen Keys to illustrate points in our discussions. I’ve written and illustrated three children’s books all featuring themes consistent with family values. 

         Although Aesop’s Fables is the closest work comparable to Fifteen Keys, few books appeared to combine adventure fantasy, and coming of age, with moral lessons. One book that comes close is “Island of the Four Ps” by Ed Hajim.