Longtime West Caldwell Resident, Teacher Pens Novel

For her fictitious but-real-to-life novel, “Look Back Move Forward,” longtime West Caldwell resident and teacher Valerie Testa Almquist tapped both her family roots and memories.

Almquist, who has taught in the North Caldwell and Essex Fells school systems and is presently teaching in the Caldwell-West Caldwell public school system, said that she drew inspiration from real-world locations in the area for her book.

Here’s how Almquist describes her novel:

“Look Back Move Forward is an adventure that intertwines historical fiction with memoirs shared by the author’s parents. The adventure transports two brothers back to December 22, 1939. They find themselves hiding in the trunk of a dark, musty, cellar of a cold-water tenement nestled within a poor Italian immigrant neighborhood of New Jersey. Here they meet a poor boy living on the fourth floor of the tenement. Together they are learning how to survive the Great Depression, discrimination, and family hardships arising from lack of food, clothes, and work. How did the brothers end up in 1939? Will they get back home for Christmas Eve?”

The book can be purchased on Amazon.com, according to a release.

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