WALK: Jamie Bacon's Secret Mission on the Camino de Santiago

by Esther Jantzen

A book for middle-grade kids (8-13) and adventurers of all ages. 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’s intrigued. And when he naively agrees to the request by two pilgrims to secretly carry a heavily taped envelope, unopened, all the way to Santiago de 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.

350 pages, Paperback

Published July 21, 2020

Reviews

[Jo Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read aloud to my 9 year-old son. It’s a gift from his Godmother, who is walking the Camino in stages. He loved it, and the 5 stars are his rating.

[Margaret Chind]

Watch for (Special Edition from Beautiful Feet Books)

[Fiona · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun book. I have been considering walking the Camino de Santiago one day but I'm unfamiliar with how it's done and what to do or see along the way. This book answers those questions at a basic level since it's written for young people.

Jamie Bacon and his sister Lily are preteens living in a Quaker home in the US. They are homeschooled. Their parents decided it would be educational and fun to walk the 500 miles of the Camino de Santiago. Jamie doesn't think so; he'll miss soccer season and his friends. At the last minute, his Dad couldn't make it for work reasons. This left Mom, Lily, and Jamie to travel the Camino.

They meet interesting people along the way. Hans & Pieter hand Jamie a sealed envelope with the promise not to open it and to deliver it to a specific jewelry shop near the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. He also made a promise not to tell anyone about his secret mission. What could be in the envelope? Drugs?

He meets Marley, a young woman from New Zealand, who leaves him messages and clues along the Camino. He learns about history from Charlemagne to Song of Roland to El Cid and the Templar Knights. He also learns that his Mom has a panic attack and helps her. He learns forgiveness when he causes Lily to fall and hurt herself and when he crashes a friend's bike.

He completes the Camino with a few surprises along the way.

This is a fun and educational book designed for preteens. I also enjoyed it.

[Bethany Dattolo · Rating 3 out of 5]

We read this book as part of our homeschool and it was pretty educational and mildly entertaining. It definitely made some of us want to walk the Camino de Santiago ourselves! Some of my kids enjoyed it more than others and I probably wouldn’t read it just for entertainment purposes, but I liked it! It was nice to have another homeschooling family at the center of the story and I particularly found it thrilling to try to do all the accents of the different people Jamie met along the way—Australian, Spanish, German, British—it kept me on my toes! I won’t ask my kids to rate my reading from that standpoint, though. 🤣

[Jean Sheldon · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Walk” is an entertaining and fun way to learn about the 500-mile pilgrimage Camino de Santiago, in Spain. Jamie Bacon and his family, (and readers) learn quickly that, as with all challenges, the Camino offers its share of trials and lessons. I can’t attest to the story’s suitability for the suggested 8-12-year reading level, but I found the historical information and descriptions enticing enough to consider my own pilgrimage. At my age, that’s worth five stars!

[Emily Ballard · Rating 3 out of 5]

read for school

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing fell flat in the last third of the book. My son says, “it feels unfinished,” and I agree.