Pete and the Water Tower

The Snack Cake Chronicles

Pete and the Water Tower Cover

Peter doesn’t need mothered…

After his mom suffers a brain injury and his dad walks away, Peter Stafford, his big sister, Star, and their broken mother move to a small town to live with Pete’s grandmother. While Star fights the changes every step of the way, Peter wants to make this work, but what do you do when your mom thinks like a ten-year-old?

Wendy Pickens knows she mothers people. Smothers people. Her younger sister and everyone else point that out all the time. But how can she stop being who she is? When she finds a new guy hiding in the park one morning, all those maternal feelings get going, and not with the best results. Why would God send her Pete, who doesn’t think he needs even one mother, let alone two? Does God not know her at all?

But their issues are their strengths, and his loss and her smothering might lead them to rescue one another and a few other lost souls along the way.

The Snack Cake Chronicles, Christian teen reads that also appeal to adults. Read them in any order, tales about growing up, growing in faith, and learning to love.

Jill's Notes

  • Years ago, one of my kid’s friends dealt with a parent healing from a head injury, and that inspired this story.
  • Sometimes a cast of characters turns out to have amazing chemistry. That happened here.
  • Pete is possibly the tallest character in my imaginary worlds. I think he tops out at 6’4″.
  • Starfish, Pete’s little big sister (she calls him her big little brother!), is one of my favorite characters. She’s blunt, loving, and can admit when she’s wrong.
  • I super enjoyed writing a scene where Pete’s mom and his high school friends TP their own house. Pete’s mom, while mentally diminished, is an upbeat character who’s easy to love.
  • You may never look at a water tower in the same way. 
  • Maybe one day I’ll learn that water tower is two words and not one, which is how I tended to type it. 
  • This book is in Kindle Unlimited.
man writing in a journal. Pete and the Water Tower image
Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story... Ps. 107:2a NIV