Dear Mr. Crutcher,
I thought that the book, Sledding Hill was a great book that just needed a few changes. The first change that needs to happen is to find another way for Billy to talk to Eddie. It can be in the dreams, and his head, but don’t do this bumping thing. The way to fix that is to change Billy to a non important character in the story that Eddie says is just in his head. The next thing that you need to fix is the ending of the story. You don’t just end with Billy saying good-bye. You need a proper ending, like Eddie talking about his life after the book banning. He could even start talking about his next big project of saving something, or trying to get all of the corrupt people out of the school board.
Speaking of Eddie, you need to really try and get rid of him talking right after Billy talks. If you just follow my changes, we won’t even have the problem of Billy talking all that much.
I really didn’t know the point of the story until about ¾ the way through the book. I really didn’t like that much. Maybe you could try and put the issue a little more clearly in the beginning of the book. Also, you spent so much time on the deaths of Billy and Eddie’s dad that it took away from the real issue, the book banning. What good is the book if you don’t talk as much as you can about the issue at hand, the book banning?
My next big question is if you really believe the stuff you say. Like if you believe what happens to Billy after he died. If you do, then I will have to disagree with you. I can’t believe that Billy will bump, as you say in the novels.
My next question is if you really believe the books should really be banned from schools. I know that you think that your books shouldn’t be banned, but what about the others? Do you think that other real life issues should be banned? Or do you think that they should just be banned from schools, and not from public libraries? I think that they shouldn’t be banned at all because they are real life issues, and not just the normal books that have the same plot line, the people have a problem, the people have a problem, the people try to resolve it the first time and fail, then the people try to fix the problem again, and they typically win. Somewhere in there usually someone will fall in love with someone else. It doesn’t really pay much attention to the issues that you pay attention to.
Thank you for listening to me, and I hope that this will help you for your next book that I will read.
Sincerely,
Arae2011
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Monday, January 7, 2008
Blog 3
This book is something that I wouldn’t recommend to any of my friends. I might recommend this book to someone that wanted a science fiction book, because this book is so far-fetched. The way that he explains the book is like he wants people to not believe it. This book is something that my friends would hate because it is a bad written book.
The way that he wrote it was like he rushed too fast, or was trying to make a deadline. I don’t think that he really tried all that hard to make the book all that good. It was a book that was slapped together in about 6 months, I’d say.
What he wants besides good books is ratings. He chose the good ratings instead of the good book. I wish that he would have chosen the other choice, the good book part. If he would have chosen to write a good book then I would have probably read it with more enthusiasm. I would have also given more and better reviews on the book.
When the book was written all of the traits of writing were followed, but not all that well. I think that the best thing that he did was that he tried to make the characters emotions run well. The emotion that he made was perfect. He did very well on following Eddie’s emotions and telling what happened from the time that he found his dad and best friend were killed to the point that he tried not to ban the book. The rest was really stupid. The word choice was OK and the way he wrote the story, as I said before was horrible! The grammar, as in all professional works, was perfect. There is no question that the grammar and the character flow were the best, and almost the only good part of the book.
Let’s recap, in this reflection I have talked about how I would never recommend this book to anyone unless they were looking for a snore fest, and a horrible sci-fi book. The only good part of this book was the character development and the good grammar. In conclusion I thought that this was a horrible book that no one should read.
The way that he wrote it was like he rushed too fast, or was trying to make a deadline. I don’t think that he really tried all that hard to make the book all that good. It was a book that was slapped together in about 6 months, I’d say.
What he wants besides good books is ratings. He chose the good ratings instead of the good book. I wish that he would have chosen the other choice, the good book part. If he would have chosen to write a good book then I would have probably read it with more enthusiasm. I would have also given more and better reviews on the book.
When the book was written all of the traits of writing were followed, but not all that well. I think that the best thing that he did was that he tried to make the characters emotions run well. The emotion that he made was perfect. He did very well on following Eddie’s emotions and telling what happened from the time that he found his dad and best friend were killed to the point that he tried not to ban the book. The rest was really stupid. The word choice was OK and the way he wrote the story, as I said before was horrible! The grammar, as in all professional works, was perfect. There is no question that the grammar and the character flow were the best, and almost the only good part of the book.
Let’s recap, in this reflection I have talked about how I would never recommend this book to anyone unless they were looking for a snore fest, and a horrible sci-fi book. The only good part of this book was the character development and the good grammar. In conclusion I thought that this was a horrible book that no one should read.
Blog 1
The main character is Eddie. He is a very random boy that has an IQ of a genius, but nobody knows it. In the beginning of the book, when he goes in for an IQ test, he scores a 65, so he is considered a mentally challenged person. Billy, Eddie’s best and only friend’s dad goes behind the principal’s back and gives him the IQ test again, five questions at a time. He scores a genius IQ, and the principal doesn’t put him into a special class, but he doesn’t put his 2nd IQ test on record. The only people that know of his IQ are Billy, his best friend, and Billy’s dad. This is how Billy and Eddie become best friends.
When Billy dies, Eddie goes crazy it seems. He lost his dad and his only and best friend in two months. He doesn’t talk for four months and he always seems depressed. He gets over that by the help of Billy’s dad and by Billy too. By the end of the book they really do think that he is crazy enough for the loony bin, and put him there until he proves he isn’t. Now the question is, “how can a dead boy help his friend out with talking?” The answer is that Chris Crutcher is talking about a sensitive subject that is very fictional, but can be true in some cases in my opinion. That subject is talking to the dead, and the dead being there in spirit.
In my opinion is that the dead can be there in spirit, but they can’t really be there like in the book. The book talked about Billy, “bumping” someone or touching them so they feel your presence. I think that that is a bunch of BS, or bologna sandwich. That can’t be possible, I mean, has Chris Crutcher had a real life experience that he can tell us that this can happen? If he can tell me this, then I might believe him, but I thought that his stories are supposed to be about real life, not about the dead. If you get to the meat of the story though, it really about the church and banning books.
Should the church be able to run everything? That is one of the big questions in the book. When you live in small town like Eddie does, the church, or whatever big organization runs everything, and that includes the board. The small town has everything, well almost everything infiltrated. The one place they don’t is the town library where by the end of the book is where all of the kids and even adults are getting the books that the town is banning. This shows that even the best of infiltrators can’t get to them all, expecially the libraries where you should be free to read whatever you enjoy.
I have talked about the big issues. The main character, how he goes crazy, the controversy of the dead, and my opinion, and finally what the church did to the books. The big picture can be a little different sometimes, and can jump around from one subject to another. In the end though, it revolves around one thing and that thing is Eddie, the boy that never gave up.
When Billy dies, Eddie goes crazy it seems. He lost his dad and his only and best friend in two months. He doesn’t talk for four months and he always seems depressed. He gets over that by the help of Billy’s dad and by Billy too. By the end of the book they really do think that he is crazy enough for the loony bin, and put him there until he proves he isn’t. Now the question is, “how can a dead boy help his friend out with talking?” The answer is that Chris Crutcher is talking about a sensitive subject that is very fictional, but can be true in some cases in my opinion. That subject is talking to the dead, and the dead being there in spirit.
In my opinion is that the dead can be there in spirit, but they can’t really be there like in the book. The book talked about Billy, “bumping” someone or touching them so they feel your presence. I think that that is a bunch of BS, or bologna sandwich. That can’t be possible, I mean, has Chris Crutcher had a real life experience that he can tell us that this can happen? If he can tell me this, then I might believe him, but I thought that his stories are supposed to be about real life, not about the dead. If you get to the meat of the story though, it really about the church and banning books.
Should the church be able to run everything? That is one of the big questions in the book. When you live in small town like Eddie does, the church, or whatever big organization runs everything, and that includes the board. The small town has everything, well almost everything infiltrated. The one place they don’t is the town library where by the end of the book is where all of the kids and even adults are getting the books that the town is banning. This shows that even the best of infiltrators can’t get to them all, expecially the libraries where you should be free to read whatever you enjoy.
I have talked about the big issues. The main character, how he goes crazy, the controversy of the dead, and my opinion, and finally what the church did to the books. The big picture can be a little different sometimes, and can jump around from one subject to another. In the end though, it revolves around one thing and that thing is Eddie, the boy that never gave up.
Works Cited
Yanosko, Janet. "Forbidden Library." title.forbiddenlibrary.com. 6 Mar. 2005. Amazon.com. 16 Jan. 2008
Religion and Books
I think that the ban on some books is a good idea, but the ban on some others is just stupid. When you ban a book, what do people look for? Do they look for content, or for language, or do they look for things like racism? When they look for things like that, they look for how much is in there, and how little.
Now, some places have little to no tolerance to things like that, while some have a great amount of tolerance to it. When they look to ban a book, they also look to see what the church and the rest of the industry would say. Let’s take the book, The Lorax for example. The industry in California, and Oregon didn’t want it in their areas, because it promoted not chopping down trees. Some people out there, their life depends on the tree cutting business. The church might take a community and try to ban the Harry Potter series for example. When you look at it, that’s what the church wants, and if they want that to happen, then do it in the homes. These are the things that are OK, but there are some of the stupider ones. For example, The Adventures of Alice in Wonder Land, The people decided to ban it because they think that animals shouldn’t have the same status as humans, even in a fictional story. Another really odd one is the book, Where’s Waldo? The book was banned because in one of the pages, there is a woman with a bikini on, but no top. The question is how hard did they look to find the woman? I think that the people, when they have nothing better to do, try to find books to ban. This is something that I wish that people didn’t do.
I think that people shouldn’t ban books in a community unless there is a good reason. I think that is really stupid when they ban a book that is not necessary to ban. The books shouldn’t be banned unless if it isn’t necessary. For example, The Lorax is an Ok book to ban in some places, but you should be careful where you ban it. In some places though, the book should be banned through families. What I mean is that the families should take into consideration and then ban the book if they want to.
Now, some places have little to no tolerance to things like that, while some have a great amount of tolerance to it. When they look to ban a book, they also look to see what the church and the rest of the industry would say. Let’s take the book, The Lorax for example. The industry in California, and Oregon didn’t want it in their areas, because it promoted not chopping down trees. Some people out there, their life depends on the tree cutting business. The church might take a community and try to ban the Harry Potter series for example. When you look at it, that’s what the church wants, and if they want that to happen, then do it in the homes. These are the things that are OK, but there are some of the stupider ones. For example, The Adventures of Alice in Wonder Land, The people decided to ban it because they think that animals shouldn’t have the same status as humans, even in a fictional story. Another really odd one is the book, Where’s Waldo? The book was banned because in one of the pages, there is a woman with a bikini on, but no top. The question is how hard did they look to find the woman? I think that the people, when they have nothing better to do, try to find books to ban. This is something that I wish that people didn’t do.
I think that people shouldn’t ban books in a community unless there is a good reason. I think that is really stupid when they ban a book that is not necessary to ban. The books shouldn’t be banned unless if it isn’t necessary. For example, The Lorax is an Ok book to ban in some places, but you should be careful where you ban it. In some places though, the book should be banned through families. What I mean is that the families should take into consideration and then ban the book if they want to.
Novel Evaluation
The book starts out Billy explaining that he and Eddie are the best and only friends that they have. Then it starts explaining how random Eddie is. He is so random that he first got a 65 on his IQ test. If you don’t know, that’s means that he needs to go into the special ed program. Then it when Eddie explained the situation to Billy’s dad, Billy’s dad goes to the principal to explain the situation. The principal said no, but Billy’s dad is the janitor in the school so he found another test, and he gave it to Eddie five questions at a time. He then scored about 100 points higher than his last score. His score was off the charts, but the principal wouldn’t put it on record. He did let Eddie get out of the special ed classes. Then the problems begin. Eddie’s dad dies first, and then Billy dies. When Billy dies, Eddie goes into shock and doesn’t speak for about 3 months. He goes to church, but he doesn’t like it. He hates church, and Tarter is trying to pull Eddie into getting baptized. Eddie doesn’t think that that is such a bad idea because he is having dreams about Billy and a sledding hill. He thinks that this is the only way that he will get rid of the dreams is to get baptized. When he goes to the first meeting, he realizes that Tarter is a racist, and Eddie doesn’t like that. So when school starts back up again, the one class that he was looking forward to was a modern literature class. When Eddie got the book that he was required to read, the church bans the book. The reason that the church wants the book banned is because they think that the content is too adult for young kids. This gives a reason for Eddie to talk. He starts by only talking to Billy, who he knows is dead, but still talks to him on his runs, and Billy’s dad. Together Eddie devises a plan. The plan isn’t revealed until the end. The plan was that he was going to speak at his baptism and when he speaks, he will talk about the book banning, and the way he doesn’t want the book to be banned. At the end of the speech, he says that he is Jesus, so they put him in a loony bin. The school board meeting is that night. All of the kids that agree with Eddie go and present, but there is one speaker that they don’t count on, the speaker is Chris Crutcher. In the end, Eddie gets out of the loony bin in time to see Chris Crutcher speak. The end of the book is that the books are banned, including a bunch of other books.
I think that this is one of the weirdest books that I have ever read. I wish that I would have picked a different book. This book was written like that Chris Crutcher had writers block. It also doesn’t have the content like my teacher said that it would have. This doesn’t really disappoint me, but it made the book all the more childish then the other books that I have heard that Chris Crutcher has written. All in all, the entire book was not that good, and I wish that I wouldn’t have read it.
I think that this is one of the weirdest books that I have ever read. I wish that I would have picked a different book. This book was written like that Chris Crutcher had writers block. It also doesn’t have the content like my teacher said that it would have. This doesn’t really disappoint me, but it made the book all the more childish then the other books that I have heard that Chris Crutcher has written. All in all, the entire book was not that good, and I wish that I wouldn’t have read it.
Book Background
Main characters- Eddie, Billy, Tarter, and Billy’s dad
Eddie- Eddie is a sweet boy that has some ADHD and ADD problems. He is a very gifted child and has really only one friend, Billy. When Eddie’s dad dies, Eddie is crushed and Billy helps him every step of the way. Then when Billy dies, Eddie goes into silence for about 3 months. He is silent from June to mid- October. I really like Eddie, and he is a good kid that had some problems. This strings in Billy as a major character.
Billy- Billy is a ghost that wants Eddie to move on and he wants him to start talking again. When Billy was alive his best and only friend was Eddie. Billy was considered the smartest kid in class, and even the whole middle school. He was a great kid that just had some problems making friends because of how smart he is. When he dies he becomes a ghost and tries to help Eddie through his silence by talking to him or “bumping” as he called it. The only person that Eddie tells about him and Billy talking again is Billy’s dad.
Billy’s Dad- Billy’s dad is a very important character in the means of helping Eddie with getting out of the special Ed program. What happened was that Eddie has a problem with paying attention to one thing for more than ten minutes. So when he took the IQ test he failed it and he was sent to the special ed program. Billy’s dad though, he realized Eddie’s full potential and did something for him. He gave him the questions on the IQ test five at a time. When Eddie finished, he had about as high of a score as Billy. Now the principal didn’t like this, so he didn’t put the test on record, but he didn’t put Eddie in the special Ed program either. He also is the one that set up the meetings for the people that want to participate in the book ban and he holds him in his office, which is the boiler room. Tarter, the reverend didn’t like this, and this bring us to Tarter.
Tarter- Tarter is the reverend of the only church in the book. He is a man that had a very hard childhood, and is now taking it out on other kid by unusual punishment. He also heads up the school board, and he has infiltrated the entire town. It really got bad when the librarian decided to read a Chris Crutcher book and it had some problems with the church not liking that because of the adult content. He is the whole reason that Eddie went and started talking too. If it wasn’t for the book ban, Eddie probably would have never talked again, or until he couldn’t stand it anymore. But Tarter is a evil character that just need to get over controlling everything.
Setting- The setting in the book is in Bear Creek, Idaho during the modern times.
Eddie- Eddie is a sweet boy that has some ADHD and ADD problems. He is a very gifted child and has really only one friend, Billy. When Eddie’s dad dies, Eddie is crushed and Billy helps him every step of the way. Then when Billy dies, Eddie goes into silence for about 3 months. He is silent from June to mid- October. I really like Eddie, and he is a good kid that had some problems. This strings in Billy as a major character.
Billy- Billy is a ghost that wants Eddie to move on and he wants him to start talking again. When Billy was alive his best and only friend was Eddie. Billy was considered the smartest kid in class, and even the whole middle school. He was a great kid that just had some problems making friends because of how smart he is. When he dies he becomes a ghost and tries to help Eddie through his silence by talking to him or “bumping” as he called it. The only person that Eddie tells about him and Billy talking again is Billy’s dad.
Billy’s Dad- Billy’s dad is a very important character in the means of helping Eddie with getting out of the special Ed program. What happened was that Eddie has a problem with paying attention to one thing for more than ten minutes. So when he took the IQ test he failed it and he was sent to the special ed program. Billy’s dad though, he realized Eddie’s full potential and did something for him. He gave him the questions on the IQ test five at a time. When Eddie finished, he had about as high of a score as Billy. Now the principal didn’t like this, so he didn’t put the test on record, but he didn’t put Eddie in the special Ed program either. He also is the one that set up the meetings for the people that want to participate in the book ban and he holds him in his office, which is the boiler room. Tarter, the reverend didn’t like this, and this bring us to Tarter.
Tarter- Tarter is the reverend of the only church in the book. He is a man that had a very hard childhood, and is now taking it out on other kid by unusual punishment. He also heads up the school board, and he has infiltrated the entire town. It really got bad when the librarian decided to read a Chris Crutcher book and it had some problems with the church not liking that because of the adult content. He is the whole reason that Eddie went and started talking too. If it wasn’t for the book ban, Eddie probably would have never talked again, or until he couldn’t stand it anymore. But Tarter is a evil character that just need to get over controlling everything.
Setting- The setting in the book is in Bear Creek, Idaho during the modern times.
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