Genres
Collection
Publication
Greenwillow Books (2006), Edition: Reprint, 256 pages
Description
Billy, recently deceased, keeps an eye on his best friend, fourteen-year-old Eddie, who has added to his home and school problems by becoming mute, and helps him stand up to a conservative minister and English teacher who is orchestrating a censorship challenge.
User reviews
LibraryThing member sweetiegherkin
Despite the unenlightening name and rather innocuous looking cover, I was immediately hooked with this book. In the first chapter, 14-year-old Eddie Proffit's father and then his best friend, Billy Bartholomew, both die in unrelated freak accidents within a few weeks of each other. Eddie is the one
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to discover both of their bodies, and the shock and grief literally strike Eddie mute. However Billy's death doesn't stop him from narrating the entire book while his spirit decides to stick around Earth for a second time to check up on Eddie. With newfound omniscience, Billy gives the reader insights into Eddie's mind as well as his own thoughts and the thoughts of a few other characters. The next few chapters give the appearance that the rest of the book will be devoted to discussing grief, which it does to some extent. However, the book then takes a turn when Eddie's elective course, Really Modern Literature, starts discussing a controversial (and faux) novel, Warren Peece by none other than Chris Crutcher. The small town’s fundamental Christians get up in arms against the book, trying to have it pulled from the course curriculum along with other "obscene" books. Eddie, with some help from Billy's ghost, must decide whether to go with the flow or stand up for a challenged book. This book, while suffering from some writing style flaws, is an interesting look at the process of censorship and the motivations behind both sides of a censorship challenge. Show Less
LibraryThing member dlmann
Written from the third person point of view the story setting is in a small town and school. The boy, Eddie, experiences the death of of his father and best friend within a month of each other. Eddie is the one who finds each one of them dead in separate accidents. Billy continues to visit or
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"bump" Eddie to help him get through this tough time. A school book causes controversy and helps Eddie cope and survive his losses. Show Less
LibraryThing member hdusty
amazing story of a small town's struggle to censor a book every kid is smuggling to read. a high school and community torn apart by religious fundamentalism, tragic deaths, and a boy who wants to find himself. postmodernism for young adults.
LibraryThing member millme
My favorite Chris Crutcer book and I really like all of his books.
LibraryThing member 4sarad
I didn't like this book. It was too similar to Crutcher's other books while lacking their best features. I was bored by the characters, bored by their situations, and irritated the Crutcher wrote himself into the story. Overall this was a miss for me.
LibraryThing member chibimajo
Eddie is dealt some hard blows - his dad and his best friend die within a month of each other, and he just kind of shuts down. Until he is assigned a fictional book by Chris Crutcher in an elective reading class he takes. The local religious community tries to get the book banned, and Eddie, along
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with the spiritual guidance of dead friend Billy B. LOVED the fact that Chris created a fictional book to write about and made himself a character in this story. Very amusing. Show Less
LibraryThing member DF1A_SarahH
i did not like this book. i thought that it was super boring. i didn't find any part exciting until for the speech at the end. i would recommend this book, if someone wanted to read a really boring book.
LibraryThing member DF1A_SarahG
This book had some parts that were really good but other parts were kinda weird. It thought it was weird of Chris Crutcher to put himself in the book.
LibraryThing member DF1A_BrindleyF
This is not one of my personal favorites, but it is also written at a very elementary level for a reason. This is about a dead boy who follows his alive friend around to help him out in the world he's still alive in.
LibraryThing member DF1A_NataschaM
The Sledding Hill is not an ordinary book. It is a book which talks, without any diffidence, about the issues of the today world. Its main protagonist is Eddie Proffit, an over smart guy, who has to undergo two really hard strokes. In a time period of only three months, he loses his Dad and his
The whole story is told by nobody else then ghost Billy who supports his friend Eddie also after his death. A support that is strongly needed. Eddie has to deal with Mr. Tartar, who is both a feared English teacher at school and the minister to a flock of Protestant fundamentalists at the Red Brick Church. Not an easy starting position for Eddie and a pretty hard thing to do, but he still has Billy’s help, even when in a very special form...
We had to read The Sledding Hill for our Beyond Bestsellers class. First I wasn’t very motivated and the start truly confused me but the book became better and better and it has many intelligent thoughts and ideas included. It is one of the books, which make me feel, that I have learned something. Therefore: Yes, read it ;)
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best friend Billy Bartholomew to violent accidents. With these happenings his world changes immediately.The whole story is told by nobody else then ghost Billy who supports his friend Eddie also after his death. A support that is strongly needed. Eddie has to deal with Mr. Tartar, who is both a feared English teacher at school and the minister to a flock of Protestant fundamentalists at the Red Brick Church. Not an easy starting position for Eddie and a pretty hard thing to do, but he still has Billy’s help, even when in a very special form...
We had to read The Sledding Hill for our Beyond Bestsellers class. First I wasn’t very motivated and the start truly confused me but the book became better and better and it has many intelligent thoughts and ideas included. It is one of the books, which make me feel, that I have learned something. Therefore: Yes, read it ;)
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LibraryThing member df1a_allyvk
I didn't really enjoy this book. I thought it was kind of boring. I did not like how he mentioned himself alot of the time. I thought it was wierd how it was from the dead person's point of view. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone unless they are interested in a class like best sellers. It
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did not take long to read but it took a long time to get into. Show Less
LibraryThing member KarriesKorner
There's a lot going on in this book because Crutcher -- true to form -- hits on so many elements that will interest teens. There religious persecution, censorship, death, peer pressure, and school issues going on here. Not only that, but there's a life-after-death friendship that holds this whole
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book together. I especially liked the Chris Crutcher twist at the end; you'll have to read to find out what I mean by that! Show Less
LibraryThing member DF1A_SarinaZ
I found it interesting how the story was narrated by a deceased character, but that made the story feel a bit complete before it even began. Billy mentions that he can go anywhere and understand people's thoughts, even going into their minds as if he can picture some past event that left a large
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impact on that person. It gives the reader the feeling that Billy already knows what's going to happen before it even happens, which makes the action a little less exciting. However, I liked how the characters responded to a realistic situation which contrasted well with the narration of deceased Billy. I also liked how Eddie evolved throughout the book and his silent resolution that was his secret weapon to not quite defeat Reverend Tarter, but humiliated him to no end. Show Less
LibraryThing member annekiwi
The story starts out about a boy who first finds his father dead, and less than 1 month (maybe 3) finds his best friend dead. They have both died by accident. Then the book segues into a rant about book burning, censorship, and fundamental Christians, with a bit of racism thrown in. One star for
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being an annoying political rant. Show Less
LibraryThing member CBJames
I'm taking a chance with The Sledding Hill.
The story is narrated by Billy, a teenager who dies in the opening pages of the book. His spirit sticks around to keep an eye on his best friend Eddie who lost his father only a few months before Billy died in a freak accident. Eddie is not having an easy
Trouble is, Eddie doesn't want to join the reverend's church. The reverened is actively trying to push religion in the high school where he teaches--trying to get his students to become vocal oppenents to evolution in science class and to force the school librarian to stop using a controversial book with the contemporary literature class she teaches. Eddie's not saying anything about any of this to anyone, except for Billy's father who still works at the high school as a custodian and to the ghost of Billy, whom Eddie is not quite sure he believes in.
Adult readers, especially Chris Crutcher's readers, know by now that a show down is coming, that Eddie is going to make a big speech in front of Rev. Tarter's church. The Sledding Hill builds to its climax slowly but effectively, revealing more about the Rev. Tarter, the town the book is set in, and the students at Eddie's high school as events head to what must be one of the more interesting Sunday's any fundamentalist church has ever spent. Secrets are revealled; we find out that a minor character who attends Rev. Tarter's church comes out just before Eddie's final confrontation scene. However, Mr. Crutcher wrote The Sledding Hill specifically for middle school age readers, I'm told at the request of Middle School teachers and librarians, so the controversial subject matter is not on the same level as it is in his other books like Whale Talk or Ironman.
Still, I'm taking a chance by adding it to my class book club library. Hope it's worth it.
The story is narrated by Billy, a teenager who dies in the opening pages of the book. His spirit sticks around to keep an eye on his best friend Eddie who lost his father only a few months before Billy died in a freak accident. Eddie is not having an easy
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time of it. Even before Eddie's father and Billy died, Eddie had difficulties in school and a sometimes troubled relationship with his mother. Eddie's mother wants him to be baptised into the fundamentalist church she attends. Once his father dies, Eddie's mother starts bringing Rev. Tarter, who also teaches history at the high school Eddie attends, over for dinner on a regular basis. After Billy dies, Eddie decides to stop talking, his only defense against a world that has turned on him. Rev. Tarter respects Eddie's silence in class, but lets him know that he'll have to talk if he wants to be baptized. He first must tell his story to the assemble congregation. Trouble is, Eddie doesn't want to join the reverend's church. The reverened is actively trying to push religion in the high school where he teaches--trying to get his students to become vocal oppenents to evolution in science class and to force the school librarian to stop using a controversial book with the contemporary literature class she teaches. Eddie's not saying anything about any of this to anyone, except for Billy's father who still works at the high school as a custodian and to the ghost of Billy, whom Eddie is not quite sure he believes in.
Adult readers, especially Chris Crutcher's readers, know by now that a show down is coming, that Eddie is going to make a big speech in front of Rev. Tarter's church. The Sledding Hill builds to its climax slowly but effectively, revealing more about the Rev. Tarter, the town the book is set in, and the students at Eddie's high school as events head to what must be one of the more interesting Sunday's any fundamentalist church has ever spent. Secrets are revealled; we find out that a minor character who attends Rev. Tarter's church comes out just before Eddie's final confrontation scene. However, Mr. Crutcher wrote The Sledding Hill specifically for middle school age readers, I'm told at the request of Middle School teachers and librarians, so the controversial subject matter is not on the same level as it is in his other books like Whale Talk or Ironman.
Still, I'm taking a chance by adding it to my class book club library. Hope it's worth it.
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LibraryThing member readaholic12
A very interesting and thought provoking book about friendship, loss, grief, censorship and religion. The story line about a friendship that survives death and the descriptions of the afterlife vs. Earthtime are vey good, but the censorship and religion struggles felt like a rehash of the movie
I was surprised that the author wrote himself into the book, in fact the back half of the story is primarily about the banning of his books - it was interesting but distractingly manipulative.
I think teens will connect with this story, expecially the friendship and personal growth aspects. I hope they read the supplements and realize why the author is so adamant in his support of the first Ammendment, and peruse the many resources he lists to become more informed.
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Footloose. I admire the message Chris Crutcher is trying to convey to kids, that no one can tell you what to think about the world around you, and that there is no place for intolerance in a just world. *** Spoiler ****I was surprised that the author wrote himself into the book, in fact the back half of the story is primarily about the banning of his books - it was interesting but distractingly manipulative.
I think teens will connect with this story, expecially the friendship and personal growth aspects. I hope they read the supplements and realize why the author is so adamant in his support of the first Ammendment, and peruse the many resources he lists to become more informed.
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LibraryThing member jclarkd
When i first read this book i was a little skeptic. It looked a lot different than most of chris crutchers books. It has names for the chapters, the cover was rather unusual, and it revolved around a younger character, eddie profit, being 14 years old rather than 17 like most of his books. Almost
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immediately though, the book caught my attention. Its told from the point of view of eddie's best friend, billy, who died in a freak accident. I liked this book a lot. The protagonist of the story is eddie, who is trying to prevent a book his english class is reading from being banned from the local church. Its all being led by led by the reverned, whose also taking place of his father that died not too much before his best friend. The book deals with grief of a lost friend, a lost father, and growing up. Another reason why i liked this book a lot is because eddie's in crosscountry, and you can relate to him a lot at times. This book had me glued the whole time. i'd recommend this to anyone who likes to read... Show Less
LibraryThing member purplestberry
This book i feel is a wonderfully well written and insightful book of a misunderstood child.As soon as i started i couldn't put it down. It contains some of my favorit topics in it suchs as a misunderstood human, religous discrimation, and the fact people think anyone different should be changed
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till there exactly like them. Show Less
LibraryThing member bbellthom
Eddie Profitt is not the most popular student in the 8th grade his mind is constantly going and he questions everything. Billy Bartholomew is the smartest kid in the 8th grade and the janitor’s son. Eddie and Billy become best friends. In the span of a few weeks Eddie’s father and Billy die,
This is a wonderful book that I highly recommend to all those who don’t want to be told what you can or cannot read.
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Eddie is the first to discover each body. Billy can still talk to Eddie and what you think is going to be a very sad story about how horrible Eddie’s life is turning out takes a turn and becomes a story about banning books in schools. This is a wonderful book that I highly recommend to all those who don’t want to be told what you can or cannot read.
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LibraryThing member Whisper1
Eddie and Billy are best real life friends, until Billy accidentally kicks a pile of sheet rock that rapidly cascades and kills him. Sadly, within the span of a very short time, Eddie losses both his best friend and his father to freak accidents.
Knowing his friend has a lack of social skills and is
When the nasty small-town preacher decides to use Eddie and his emotional pain as a statement regarding how to be a "Christian", Billy provides assistance.
This book was ok, not great, just ok. It was good enough to finish and initially held my interest, but I was taken aback by the author's self aggrandizement. One of the major themes of the book was the banning of books and censorship.
I was a tad bothered by the fact that the author used his real life book to incorporate into the fictional tale of Eddie and Billy and censorship.
Knowing his friend has a lack of social skills and is
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also in emotional pain, Billy decides to hang around before passing on to the next level. Thus, his spirit regularly visits Eddie to provide guidance.When the nasty small-town preacher decides to use Eddie and his emotional pain as a statement regarding how to be a "Christian", Billy provides assistance.
This book was ok, not great, just ok. It was good enough to finish and initially held my interest, but I was taken aback by the author's self aggrandizement. One of the major themes of the book was the banning of books and censorship.
I was a tad bothered by the fact that the author used his real life book to incorporate into the fictional tale of Eddie and Billy and censorship.
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LibraryThing member laVermeer
This is a clever book that adopts an unusual narrative point of view to explore the concepts of friendship, love, well-being, and censorship. It is particularly welcome as a YA text with a male narrator and centred on a male protagonist that doesn't explore sexual relationships; instead, it
Eddie, the protagonist, is grieving sudden, deep losses and confronting the challenges of being a teenage boy. A community fight over the removal of books from the school library gives him a focus for healing and working through his emerging sense of identity.
Readers are likely to be challenged by the narrative concept, by the arguments around censorship (particularly the contamination theory and the responsible-community theory), and by the author's presence in the text. This book invites thoughtful conversation and mature engagement. It could be rewardingly used in a classroom, for it is sure to stimulate discussion, but is more likely to be successfully introduced to individual readers through recommendation from a trusted source. There are few language concerns per se, but any careful reader will encounter narrative asides, knowing winks, and paraphrasing that signal typical hot-button topics.
I'm very glad to have read this novel. It's thoughtful, approachable, and so, so smart, and I enjoyed it.
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explores issues of censorship, intelligence, authority, conformity, and integrity.Eddie, the protagonist, is grieving sudden, deep losses and confronting the challenges of being a teenage boy. A community fight over the removal of books from the school library gives him a focus for healing and working through his emerging sense of identity.
Readers are likely to be challenged by the narrative concept, by the arguments around censorship (particularly the contamination theory and the responsible-community theory), and by the author's presence in the text. This book invites thoughtful conversation and mature engagement. It could be rewardingly used in a classroom, for it is sure to stimulate discussion, but is more likely to be successfully introduced to individual readers through recommendation from a trusted source. There are few language concerns per se, but any careful reader will encounter narrative asides, knowing winks, and paraphrasing that signal typical hot-button topics.
I'm very glad to have read this novel. It's thoughtful, approachable, and so, so smart, and I enjoyed it.
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LibraryThing member amysisson
I adore Chris Crutcher's books and have read almost all of them; I never seem to tire of his themes of compassion, intellectual freedom, standing up against bullies, and open discourse. That said, this book did not work well for me, although I appreciate that he tried a new approach. I think that
(SPOILERS FOLLOW)
The first element is that the author is narratign posthumously; Billy is killed in a freak accident (he kicks a pile of sheet rock and it falls on him) and he then narrates the story, popping in and out of the other characters' heads as a dead person. I have no problem with this idea, but Billy relates the thoughts he sees/hears, sometimes in third person and sometimes in first person, even within the same paragraph. Since he also narrates his own portions in first person, I had to keep stopping to figure out whether a particular thought belonged to Billy or to his friend Eddie, whom he visits and helps throughout the narrative.
The second unusual element is that Crutcher inserts himself into the narrative; the book that some characters want to ban a fictitious book by Chris Crutcher himself. The characters fighting both for and against banning the book check out Crutcher's website and give lots of facts about his life. It comes across as a bit gimmicky and in my mind doesn't add much to the story.
This book is also shorter than most of Crutcher's, and it seems like he rushed to the conclusion, which seemed mostly an excuse to have a couple of characters give impassioned speeches. In my opinion, a clever argument given as a speech should rarely be the climax of a book; it then makes the book seem too much of an excuse for the author him/herself to give a speech.
Finally, while I agree with Crutcher that the people/characters we see as the "bad guys" do not generally think they are doing bad things, such as the reverend/school board member who is trying to ban the book, the fact remains that what they are doing is wrong, and I'm not willing to just accept that on face value. Those against censorship lose the battle (all of Crutcher's books are banned in the school) and supposedly win the war (the janitor and librarian who've lost their jobs get jobs at the public library, which many students now frequent in protest -- not realistic). Somehow, this ending just didn't satisfy.
All these criticisms aside, I think Crutcher is a fantastic writer and I will continue to buy and read his books. I've already pre-ordered his next one!
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might be the problem: the two unusual elements both might have worked better alone, giving the author time to work them out more successfully.(SPOILERS FOLLOW)
The first element is that the author is narratign posthumously; Billy is killed in a freak accident (he kicks a pile of sheet rock and it falls on him) and he then narrates the story, popping in and out of the other characters' heads as a dead person. I have no problem with this idea, but Billy relates the thoughts he sees/hears, sometimes in third person and sometimes in first person, even within the same paragraph. Since he also narrates his own portions in first person, I had to keep stopping to figure out whether a particular thought belonged to Billy or to his friend Eddie, whom he visits and helps throughout the narrative.
The second unusual element is that Crutcher inserts himself into the narrative; the book that some characters want to ban a fictitious book by Chris Crutcher himself. The characters fighting both for and against banning the book check out Crutcher's website and give lots of facts about his life. It comes across as a bit gimmicky and in my mind doesn't add much to the story.
This book is also shorter than most of Crutcher's, and it seems like he rushed to the conclusion, which seemed mostly an excuse to have a couple of characters give impassioned speeches. In my opinion, a clever argument given as a speech should rarely be the climax of a book; it then makes the book seem too much of an excuse for the author him/herself to give a speech.
Finally, while I agree with Crutcher that the people/characters we see as the "bad guys" do not generally think they are doing bad things, such as the reverend/school board member who is trying to ban the book, the fact remains that what they are doing is wrong, and I'm not willing to just accept that on face value. Those against censorship lose the battle (all of Crutcher's books are banned in the school) and supposedly win the war (the janitor and librarian who've lost their jobs get jobs at the public library, which many students now frequent in protest -- not realistic). Somehow, this ending just didn't satisfy.
All these criticisms aside, I think Crutcher is a fantastic writer and I will continue to buy and read his books. I've already pre-ordered his next one!
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LibraryThing member middlemedia2
I have to say that I loved this book. I don't rate books a 5 star unless I absolutely love it. The Sledding Hill is about a boy who loses his dad and his best friend within months of each other. He feels pressure from the preacher to become baptized. He misses his dad and his friend. Then he is
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The following contains spoilers so please stop reading if you don't want to spoil the book.
First I want to say that I believe that you have to be saved to be baptized. There were a few other things I don't believe in as well but they helped build the book. Religious beliefs aside, I loved this book. I am a future English teacher and know that the greatest books can and will be on the banned book list. I loved how Chris Crutcher wrote himself into this novel because he has been on the banned book list. The relationship that Eddie and Billy's dad was great in this novel. Billy's dad reached out for him when Eddie came over and gave him what he needed. He didn't push Eddie to talk like the Tarter did. When I first picked up this book I wasn't sure what it was going to be about it. I can certainly say I didn't think it was going to be about censorship. Crutcher did a great job with this book. It may be one that I teach in the classroom one day. :-)
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introduced to a book (fictional) by Chris Crutcher. This book makes him realize that he isn't alone in the world and feels like he has friends again. *********************************************************************************************************
The following contains spoilers so please stop reading if you don't want to spoil the book.
First I want to say that I believe that you have to be saved to be baptized. There were a few other things I don't believe in as well but they helped build the book. Religious beliefs aside, I loved this book. I am a future English teacher and know that the greatest books can and will be on the banned book list. I loved how Chris Crutcher wrote himself into this novel because he has been on the banned book list. The relationship that Eddie and Billy's dad was great in this novel. Billy's dad reached out for him when Eddie came over and gave him what he needed. He didn't push Eddie to talk like the Tarter did. When I first picked up this book I wasn't sure what it was going to be about it. I can certainly say I didn't think it was going to be about censorship. Crutcher did a great job with this book. It may be one that I teach in the classroom one day. :-)
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LibraryThing member quirkylibrarian
Crutcher is one of my go-to authors for YA fiction and probably the most inclusive when it comes to the ugly life issues kids face. He's a champion of telling like it is and keeping books in the hands of the reader where they belong. This work,(cool and unusual twist) read just like some of his
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interviews. It was interesting, impassioned, and right on, but he's preaching to the choir, as it were. I don't know if the equivalent of the Red Brickers would really read it. Show Less
LibraryThing member librarybrandy
Overall, this didn't blow me away. It starts off strong--the narrator is Billy, who was just killed in a freak accident involving a stack of sheetrock and is now hanging around to help his best friend Eddie through the loss (Eddie having lost his father to a different freak accident a few months
This is the first Chris Crutcher book I've read, I think, and I'm planning to read more--not because I think he's great, but because I suspect this was a minor work that he wrote to get over a writer's-block hump.
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earlier). What could be a great story about friendship and healing and inner strength--or something--becomes a story about censorship and book-banning. Which could also be a good story, but Crutcher chose one of his own books to be the one censored. I understand the appeal of using a real author and a real book, and I'm always happy to see authors who are pissed when their books get banned for idiotic reasons (viva intellectual freedom!), but in this case the book just seemed too personal. The second half of the book, when we get into the book-banning section, reads like a long lecture that Crutcher delivers to yell at whatever small town was found banning his book. This is the first Chris Crutcher book I've read, I think, and I'm planning to read more--not because I think he's great, but because I suspect this was a minor work that he wrote to get over a writer's-block hump.
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Subjects
Awards
Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award (Nominee — Young Adult — 2007)
Rhode Island Teen Book Award (Nominee — 2007)
OYAN Book Rave (2006)
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
256 p.; 5 inches
ISBN
0060502452 / 9780060502454
Similar in this library
Pages
256