The Sledding Hill
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
2 journalers for this copy...
This is not an ordinary book: it's a BookCrossing book! BookCrossing books are world travelers - they like to have adventures and make new friends...and every once in a while they even write home to say what they've been doing.Picked up at Book-Off for a quarter.
Reserved for GoryDetails as a wishlist tag: will go out as soon as I've read it!
Good stuff: a book about friendship, about grieving, and about censorship. Fairly meta: the author is part of the story. It would have been nice to see a little more follow-up on one of the students who spoke at the meeting - but I guess it isn't his story...
I don't know if anyone has challenged this book (Crutcher expected that it might be), but it discusses book banning in a level-headed way that some people could definitely learn from: it would probably make a good release for Banned Books Week anyway, especially given that a number of Crutcher's other books have been challenged.
I don't know if anyone has challenged this book (Crutcher expected that it might be), but it discusses book banning in a level-headed way that some people could definitely learn from: it would probably make a good release for Banned Books Week anyway, especially given that a number of Crutcher's other books have been challenged.
The book arrived safely today, along with some international labels and Spanish-language labels, much desired for the new Little Free Libraries in town. Many thanks!
Later: I enjoyed this as much for the "narrated by the recently-deceased buddy" aspect as for the don't-ban-books message. I was also pleased by the variety of characters and the generous depiction of even the most rabid anti-book folk as being well-intentioned. (Given the author's comments at the end about how his other books have been challenged, I thought he was being rather kind - but it was still appreciated! Though I was amused at his explanation of his deliberate choice NOT to include any cuss words in this book; he was curious to see if the majority of the challenge-the-book folks would be as eager to challenge the book for its issues - gay characters, rebellious youth, challenge-authority bits - if it didn't have any blatantly obvious "language" to point at.
I found the book's view of an afterlife interesting too - but then, I've always hoped that if there *is* any type of individual consciousness after death, it would include the ability to get answers to all those questions, from mysteries in one's own life to historical puzzles to cosmic conundrums. And, here, one does get those answers - though it's clearly difficult to imagine how it would feel to have that kind of access.
For all its tragic beginnings and sometimes-infuriating incidents, the story's upbeat and often quite funny - and I loved the charming scenes in which Billy's dad and Eddie managed to reach out to each other.
I expect I'll look up more books by this author!
Later: I enjoyed this as much for the "narrated by the recently-deceased buddy" aspect as for the don't-ban-books message. I was also pleased by the variety of characters and the generous depiction of even the most rabid anti-book folk as being well-intentioned. (Given the author's comments at the end about how his other books have been challenged, I thought he was being rather kind - but it was still appreciated! Though I was amused at his explanation of his deliberate choice NOT to include any cuss words in this book; he was curious to see if the majority of the challenge-the-book folks would be as eager to challenge the book for its issues - gay characters, rebellious youth, challenge-authority bits - if it didn't have any blatantly obvious "language" to point at.
I found the book's view of an afterlife interesting too - but then, I've always hoped that if there *is* any type of individual consciousness after death, it would include the ability to get answers to all those questions, from mysteries in one's own life to historical puzzles to cosmic conundrums. And, here, one does get those answers - though it's clearly difficult to imagine how it would feel to have that kind of access.
For all its tragic beginnings and sometimes-infuriating incidents, the story's upbeat and often quite funny - and I loved the charming scenes in which Billy's dad and Eddie managed to reach out to each other.
I expect I'll look up more books by this author!
Journal Entry 5 by 
GoryDetails
at Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, Massachusetts USA on Thursday, November 23, 2017
GoryDetails at Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, Massachusetts USA on Thursday, November 23, 2017
Released 6 yrs ago (11/23/2017 UTC) at Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, Massachusetts USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
I plan to leave this book at Plimoth Plantation this afternoon, when I attend the "Story of Thanksgiving" dinner with a friend. Hope the finder enjoys the book![See other recent releases in MA here.]
*** Released for the 2017 Keep Them Moving release challenge. ***
*** Released for the 2017 The The release challenge. ***
