Brecksville author’s novel meant to ‘grow’ youths’ interest in reading

by Emily Canning-Dean

As an eighth-grade language arts teacher, Justin Montello is very aware that not all kids enjoy reading.

“Actually, I was a reluctant reader all the way through high school,” said the Brecksville resident and recently published author. “Then when I got my first job as a Title 1 tutor for fifth-graders, I was working with students who didn’t love to read.”

As Montello prepared to write his first novel “Grow,” which is geared toward young adults and was published June 27, he made sure to gather feedback from his students at Aurora City Schools.

“This was about 10 years ago and I asked them what they would want to read about,” he said. “They said they liked [books in a] series, they liked fantasy and they liked realistic world problems that pertain to them.”

Montello took this advice to heart as he wrote “Grow,” which is a story about a group of high-schoolers trying to save the world after an authoritarian government ignored climate change and the consequences wreak havoc on the planet.

“The protagonist, Autumn Log, comes from a family that has fought for addressing climate change for generations,” he said. “The only real fantasy element is they have this magic power to regrow trees that have been chopped down if they have all of the materials made from that tree.”

Montello said the book is set in the year 2199, at a time when the United States is split into six different sections.

“The year is important because Autumn’s family had made the prediction that by the year 2200 if there aren’t a certain amount of trees, the planet will be unlivable,” he said.

Montello said he originally intended the story to be a screenplay, but as he became more of a reader himself, he determined the story should be a book.

“So while the plot has been there for over a decade, it looks way different now than it did from when I started,” he said. “There is more driving the plot through dialogue and more indirect characterization.”

Montello said a sequel to “Grow” is already in the works and added that it could possibly turn into a three-book series.

But even before the second book in the series is published, Montello hopes to have published a nonfiction book titled “Uncharted Territory.” He said the goal is for the book to be published next summer or fall.

“Three years ago, I was diagnosed with leukemia,” he said. “I beat it and I’m in remission, but the medicines did a lot to my body. So this is kind of an unfiltered story about what happened and all we went through.”

Montello said he wrote the narrative for the book, but at the end of each chapter, his wife, Cassie, gives the caretaker point of view.

Montello also has plans for a sci-fi novel that is set in northeast Ohio.

“This revolves around my grandfather seeing UFOs in the 1950s here in Brecksville,” he said. “I already have a lot of the story in my head, but I just need to write it.”

Just this summer, Montello also finished another big writing challenge. He wrote a dissertation and obtained his PhD in educational leadership and has been invited to publish in the International Forum of Teaching and Studies.

“Grow” was published by Olympia Publishers and can also be found on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.

“I have already had three kiddos from school email me that they are planning to come to my book signings Aug. 10 and 11,” he said. ∞

Photo: Brecksville resident Justin Montello just published his first novel, “Grow”. Photo submitted.