Narrated by Billy Bartholomew, a '21 gram' ghost who died from kicking Sheetrock onto himself and killing him, "The Sledding Hill" tells of the story of Eddie Proffit who lost both his father and his best friend (Billy) in the same year. This leads into how his teacher and pastor 'Tarter' is constantly pushing for him to be baptized and "given to God", which THEN leads into a battle of the books. (Fighting over the content of a book the children were reading in school.)I found it quite interesting how Chris Crutcher places himself directly in the middle of his story, name and all, and basically makes many of the characters hate his guts. The way he did this made himself seem quite controversial, and I feel that this whole book ended up to be a ploy to get people to want to read his other books, (which is working for me!)His imaginary book 'Warren Peece', (I LOVE that pun!) caused massive destruction in the church and school in this story, which actually made me want to read it. Too bad only it's imaginary. It felt kind of weird reading the author's name over and over and over again in a book that he wrote, especially since it wasn't really a biography.I absolutely loved the concept of this book, about how children should be able to read what they want and have intellectual freedom. Sometimes I myself have this problem too, and get books taken away from me because it has certain things that "I'm not ready for."Unfortunately the people against censorship lost the long battle, but yet again they also won. I feel that the whole 'book battle', (I'll refer to it as that) came up kind if randomly, and although it was leading up to it, it still just popped out. I also think it may have been better to have had the book in 3rd person, or at least have changed how Billy saw Eddie's thoughts. The ending was really great in just 1st person, but near the beginning Billy would tap into Eddie's thoughts and they would be in 1st person, which would confuse me on who's thoughts they were. I wish that Chris would have gone into further detail about Eddie's father's death, or if he was still hanging around. There wasn't much more to go over, but I still would have felt better if it had.The name itself of the book, "The Sledding Hill" made me believe the whole story would be based on a sledding hill, but instead it was in a whole different direction. I understand why it was named that, because of that one part when Billy and Eddie first meet after Billy dies, but that was really only one part that involved a sledding hill.Something that kind of confused me was when Eddie was seeing Billy's face everywhere, and I wasn't sure if it was just a psychological thing, or if Billy was unintentionally scaring the living crap out of Eddie. (I have to admit, it was pretty funny when Eddie ran out of his house barefoot and in PJ's).Eddie needed to go through lots of troubles, and good ones seemed to be his father and his best friends deaths. Okay. But his father dying because of a stupid mistake, and his best friend dying from stupidly kicking Sheetrock on himself? I mean his dad told Eddie the rules of releasing the air on tires nearly everytime he did it, (I think that was the reason...?), and Billy was nearly the smartest kid in school, so I'd doubt that he's kick a bunch of Sheetrock on himself. Speaking about Billy being the smartest kid in school, the way he was talking made him sound like he wasn't that smart when he was alive. "Being dead makes you have good grammar," and "being dead improved my vocabulary" kind of proves my point.It would be kind of cute if Eddie and Montana had ended up with each other... (Montana reminds me of one of my friends!!)This book was surprisingly much more of a religious book than I had first thought, but I really don't have any objections to it.It was fairly short, but very much worth the read. I understood both sides of the situation, but if I had to explain in 30 seconds the main points why they chose which side they did, I wouldn't be able to do it. After reading his book, I kind of want to meet Chris Crutcher, but I have no clue really what we'd talk about. :/ I strongly enjoyed this book, and it is well deserving of these 5 stars. Now off to more Chris Crutcher books!!!
This book really hit home with me. Throughout the book I learned many valuable lessons. One of these lessons was to help others and not only your friends. I am going to try and incorporate this lesson into my life no matter how hard it might be.I read the book "The Sledding Hill" by Chris Crutcher. The book starts out in a small town where the main character, Eddie Proffit, is enjoying his summer with his best friend Billy B. One day Eddie walks into his dads repair shop to find him laying there dead. Eddie was in shock and didn't know what to do. So he resorted to his best friend Billy. Soon after his fathers death, Billy carelessly kicks a stack of sheetrock over onto himself and instantly breaking his neck. Again, Eddie was the first one to find him. That did it. Eddie was so saddened by the death of two loved ones he hit his own mute button. He didn't say a word to anyone. He soon found refuge in a book called "Warren Peace". Some of the kids and the English teacher opposed the book due to cuss words. They brought it to the school board and challenged it. For the time being, the book was temporarily taken away from the kids until they could hold a formal trial with the school board. When it finally came time for the trial, Eddie was more prepared for it than anyone has ever been. He brought in Chris Crutcher himself, who is the author of "Warren Peace", to talk in front of the school board. All of his hard work and efforts didn't pay off. The book was permanently removed from the shelves of the school and the librarian who had introduced the book was immediately fired. So Eddie went on with his daily life after that. The main character in this book was Eddie Proffit. He found both his father, and best friend dead in the same summer. He is also the one who hit mute and wouldn't say a word to anyone for quite some time. The second main character is Billy Bartholomeu. He was Eddie's best friend and also the one who kicked the stack of sheet rock over onto himself. The third character is Rev. Tarter. He is the Pastor at the local church and also the English teacher. He is the one who opposes the book the most. The next character is Mr. Barhtolomeu. He is Billy's dad and is there for Eddie whenever he needs anything when he is going through his rough time.The setting of this book is in a small town in Idaho called Bear Creek. The time period that the book takes place in is present time. You can tell by the way the characters talk in the book and by the way Chris Crutcher describes how some of the characters are dressing.The Theme of this book would be to keep your head up and that everything will turn out in the end. I believe that this is the theme in this book because throughout the book, Billy has to keep reminding Eddie that things are going to turn out all right and he will get through everything that his life is throwing at him.I would recommend this book to anyone who is 14 years of age or older. I recommend this book for this age level because there are some strong topics discussed and a few cuss words. There is also a fairly strong vocabulary in some parts of the book. Overall I enjoyed the book and would give it a rating of four out of five stars.
Do You like book The Sledding Hill (2006)?
I think I am ready to say it: Chris Crutcher may be my favourite YA author. Recently I was speaking with a colleague about my back-and-forth with the genre; a few months of infatuated binge followed by a well needed rest. But while I sometimes get disappointed with the lack of "craft" or "beauty" in YA novels, I understand why they are so important and so beloved by young readers (and why I sometimes get so much out of them). And that is because, when done right, these novels help readers feel more human. A teenager may not yet value the sheer perfection that is Virginia Woolf (but I hope they will someday)--or may not yet be able to, by way of ability or age--but they will value a book when it makes them feel something and makes them feel more whole. Honestly that is what I was looking for when I was a teenager, but the YA genre didn't really exist back then. Luckily I found books and characters to pull me through anyway.While he is not the best writer in the genre (that would be John Green), Crutcher may have the best understanding of teenagers. A former child therapist working with many victims of abuse and depression, Crutcher is able to infuse a loving safety net for his characters with his novels--and by way of them, his reader. It's easy to forgive a stilted piece of dialogue when there is this much love for one's characters. In The Sledding Hill, the main character, Eddie Proffit, is suffering from a crushing grief; his father and best friend have both died and Eddie was the one to first find both of them dead. While Eddie does find help and health, as in all Crutcher novels, there are several surprises here. The most glaring is the shift in focus, which turns from grief recovery to censorship. In fact, the novel becomes a narrative argument against censorship, and particularly the banning done in the name of religion. Crutcher, a multiple victim of censorship, speaks boldly and bluntly about his feelings, and as a result, I'm sure there will be some readers who will find him too biased or unfair in his depiction of his censors. Yet I found his critique necessary and gutsy, and this book could spark a lot of discussion around the controversy of book banning, even if one didn't entirely agree with his stance.The Sledding Hill is an important novel for young people because of the questions it will provoke, not so much for its plot or its character. Yet I still found it an engaging novel with some quietly lovely moments and some original touches that kept me intrigued.
—Dominic
This is the first Chris Crutcher book I have read, and I am hooked! The guy really can write. I would have given this 5 stars, except I personally don't think the 'gimmick' of inserting himself as a fictional character into the story worked as well as he had hoped. I kind of wished he had created a fictional writer to do everything his 'fictional character' did.Nevertheless, this would be another great HS book club book, might even make a good English class book, from the standpoint of starting discussions about tolerance, censorship, getting people to read that hate to read, and the horrible things some teenagers have to face in life and how that affects them in every way. Because that's what in this story.My edition had an author note at the end, a reproduction of a letter Crutcher wrote to a HS that had banned his book Whale Talk, and a Q&A with Crutcher, which revealed, to my surprise, that he had written this book before most of the challenges regarding his books had occurred. It really felt like it had been done in response to them, and in fact he noted that the language he used in the story for the conservative characters pretty much matched what was spoken during the challenges.I particularly liked his stressing that we all see things equally strongly and while we may disagree with someone's stance, that doesn't make them a bad person. What would make a great discussion is his suggestion that by talking to each other, opposing groups can come to a better resolution of an impasse. My question for discussion would be: is that possible when the issue is felt so strongly on both sides of the fence? One other interesting thing Crutcher notes at the end is that the book contains no cuss words, and he sort of hints that it is OK for middle school or even a little younger. From that standpoint, yes, but I don't think some of the content/subject matter is necessarily middle school material; not like it would be for HS, anyway.
—Cornmaven
I read the book “The Sledding Hill.” It was written by Chris Crutcher. It’s about a freshman in high school named Eddie Profit. He has a very rough couple of months. It starts off with them starting to read the book “Warren Piece.” Another teacher at the the school who is also the pastor at the local church hears about it and tries to get it banned because he thinks the book is wrong. While all of this is happening Eddie’s father and best friend die, and he is the first to find both of them. He ends up finding solitude in the book that that is being banned, and he and a few other teachers and students fight for the book to stay. The main characters were Eddie, Billie, and Rev. Tarter. Eddie is a freshman in high school who is a closet genius. He is a smaller kid who is very skinny. Billie is Eddie’s best friend who dies in the beginning of the book. Reverend Tarter is the local pastor and teacher at their school. He is a strict man. The book takes place in Bear Creek, Idaho. It takes place all throughout town and the time period is modern time in the fall. In all i thought this was a very good book. It kept me interested throughout the whole book. I would recommend this book to any high schooler. It doesn't have a very hard vocabulary. It would also be very easy to relate to for many high schoolers. I would give this book a four out of five stars.
—Corey Schmidt
