VVMBookBlog

The Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher

This book opens with tragedy. Eddie Proffit suffers the loss of both his best friend and his father, and even worse is that Eddie is the one who first found both bodies. Eddie’s mother turns to Reverend Tartar who is not only the church leader but also a teacher at Eddie’s school. Because of the loss, and quite frankly Rev. Tartar, Eddie stops talking. At least most people think he is not talking. He is talking to his Billy (his deceased friend) and Billy’s dad. Eddie talks to Billy on the sledding hill.

Reverend Tartar is trying to get Billy talking. This isn’t easy because Billy questions Tartar as his father had when he was around. When Billy does start talking in Tartar’s church, Tartar is not pleased. Billy starts talking in response to a banned book at school. The book was banned for several reasons, and Tartar is trying to make sure it is removed from school, even though it’s the first book several students have actually read cover to cover. This controversy shows the personalities and beliefs of several characters in a riveting ending.

What would you do if a book was banned at VVMS? How would you stand up for your beliefs? Do students have the right to read books of interest even though they contain controversial topics? Who has the right to decide what should be removed from a shelf? Your parents have the right to decide what you read. Do they have the right to decide what all students read? Read this book, think about these questions, and if you would, share your thoughts with us.

From Ms. Childs: Both Ms. Moeller and I wonder about the title of this book–The Sledding Hill. Usually titles have some bit of meaning from some part of the book. The sledding hill happens to be where the deceased Billy makes contact with Eddie, but maybe I’ll have to read it again to get the deeper meaning.

After I read this I actually emailed the author, Chris Crutcher, to ask him some questions about book censorship and including controversial books in a middle school book collection. One theme of the book is that books should be available to students on topics that are both interesting to them and that students might need for things going on in their lives. And sometimes the things going on in students’ lives are difficult and hard to understand. Chris Crutcher said that students should be told that a book is “frank” in its treatment of a controversial topic, but that things happening or words used in a particular book might not okay for school or everyday life. It’s a topic that comes up for us often so I’m sure we’ll be writing about it again.

Read The Sledding Hill and tell us what you think.

Witch Catcher by Mary Downing Hahn

When I read the premise for this book, I thought it was somewhat lame… witch, trapped in a bottle, escapes… My thoughts changed after reading the book. Witch Catcher is filled with enough reality to make the book intriguing. I actually looked at the back of the book to see how it would end!

Jen’s mother died when she was young. Since her mother’s death she has lived alone with her father. When an eccentric uncle dies, Jen and her father inherit the uncle’s castle. Not long after the move in Jen realizes her dad is in love with Moura, a lady she can’t stand. Actually Moura isn’t really fond of Jen especially after she takes the “witch catcher.” Moura warns Jen that there are witches inside this blown glass container, and it is very dangerous. Jen, of course, has hidden the witch catcher. Tink, her cat, breaks it. After this accident, Jen finds a young girl in the forest… a witch?

Dulcie is 16 and her father, a custodian at her school, has just died from inhaling a poisonous combination of cleaning fumes. Her mother reacts to this tragedy by piling them in her dad’s old red truck and driving them across the country to settle in California. But Dulcie wants to go back east to her home in Connecticut where she plans to live with her grandfather, also a custodian at school. So she hops in the old red pickup and, without telling her mom, heads back east.

She begins “defining Dulcie” when she gets back to her old life and meets her Grandpa Frank’s new student assistant, Roxanne, sees the problems in Roxanne’s life and starts comparing them to her own life. They all find an interesting way to re-create their lives in new and different ways, while preserving all the good memories of the past.

Check out Paul Acampora’s website and journal!

I’m admitting here and now that this is the first time I have read this whole, entire book, even though it’s been around for a couple years, my book club read it, and it’s one of the Maud Hart Lovelace books for this coming year. I’ve read many parts in the past, started it many times, skimmed it for various reasons, but never read the whole book. And even though it’s science fiction and I had to quit thinking logically to let the action of the story take its course, it’s really a pretty entertaining book.

What would you do if you woke up, looked at yourself in the mirror, and you had disappeared? Well, first you’d go have some fun at your parents’ expense, which is exactly what 15-year-old Bobby did. But then you’d have to realize something REALLY strange happened during the night, you can’t tell anyone because it’s TOO strange, and either turn yourself over to your very intelligent university professor parents to let them figure it all out, or take matters into your own–invisible–hands. And Bobby did a little of both. But check out his first trip to the library where he “bumps” into a girl who, luckily for Bobby, is blind and wouldn’t be able to see him even if he was a normal Bobby.

Anyway, lots of funny things happen. Lots of things you just have to allow to happen even though they might not make sense. but that all becomes part of the science+fiction-ness of this story. Check it out!

Black Duck by Janet Taylor Lisle

Black Duck is set in the late 1920s during prohibition (alcohol is illegal) and bootlegging (illegally getting alcohol to the community– quite dangerous). Ruban and Jeddy are two teenage boys who find a dead body, with a bullet hole in the neck, on the beach. After they tell adults, the body disappears, but the questions remain. The story gets more intriguing because Jeddy’s dad is a police officer. What kind of trouble have these boys encountered?

Black Duck is a mystery with many dangerous people looking for a “ticket” that was supposed to be on the dead man. Who has the ticket? Who is involved in the bootlegging? Who is innocent? Who is guilty? This book reads like a television crime show.