The sledding hill

“The sledding hill” by Chris Crutcher, is a book about coping with the loss of a loved one. In the book, the main character, Billy Bartholomew, is killed by a falling stack of sheet rock that he kicks out of anger for an untold reason. His best friend Eddie Profit, finds him, laying on the floor, under the sheet rock, spine crushed, only an hour after he found his dad dead in his repair shop, he died from and exsploding truck tier. Now, Eddie being the scensable kid he is, rides out to the hot spring as fast as he can and sits neck high in the warm mud the rest of the day. About a month later school starts and Eddie gets placed into the really modern literature class or R.M.L. for short. The deal with this class is that you can only read books by authors that are still alive, like J.K. Rowling or Scott Westerfield, no classics like to kill a mocking bird or grapes of wrath. Eddie likes this class because there reading a book called Warren Peace by Chris Crutcher. Yes, it sounds the same as war and peace but it’s a lot different. There are a few different main characters in it and they’re all trying to deal with their own problems. One of the characters is gay and he’s trying to figure out where he should tell everyone or just keep it to himself. One of the characters in “The sledding hill” is also gay, he read’s the book and decides to open up about it, he’s in the Christian youth group at school so, as Cruther says, it’s like being a member of the KKK and discovering your biological father is Jewish because in the youth group they preach that being gay is a sin even though but just by luck, 10% of america is gay. The book, because of it’s “questionable” language, is challenged for removal from the school library by the school board. There are 3 or 4 members of the Red Brick Church on the school board and they feel it has bad morels and is unfit to be read by the children in public school. From there the bookie takes a few unexpected turns so you’ll have to read it to find out for yourself.

I like this book because it takes a lot of unexpected turns and keeps you hooked, it starts out good and stays strong all the way to the end unlike some other books that have bad endings or begins that take 70 or more pages to get you into the story. I enjoy how the story is told by a dead kid so you get to see every angle of the story through the eyes of a dead kid who can travel at the speed of imagination, compared to light speed it’s like a nascar vs. the creation of the grand canyon, the race care being the speed of imagination and the light speed being the speed of the G.C.

One of the discussions that the characters mad was probably the stupidest discussions he’s ever made in his life and I’m not talking about billy kicking the sheet rock imminently causing his death, I’m talking about when Eddie climbed up on to the stained glass windows at church and proclaimed he was Jesus. Now, on a list of stupid things to do in a church that would probably be the top one. I mean, with all the people in there that think there’s a higher power and that you need to pry to him or her plus all the other things that go along with church the last thing you want to do is proclaim that you are Jesus in front of a whole congregation, it’s just not a good idea. I would however recommend this book to anyone looking for a good book that’s a fast read.

Peter