The Sledding Hill

by Chris Crutcher

Within a month, Eddie Proffit's father and best friend die in freak accidents. Both are found by Eddie. Overwhelmed by the loss, Eddie stops speaking. His recently deceased best friend, Billy Bartholomew, visits him in his dreams--always on the sledding hill. This story starts out like a Lovely Bones for boys--it is narrated by the no longer living Billy. It has the potential to be great. But then the story takes a turn--Eddie's mom becomes obsessed with the Red Brick Church, and the Red Brick Church wants to ban a book that Billy's reading (and enjoying) at school. All of a sudden, this isn't a story about a young man coping with the deaths of his father and best friend. It is a story about censorship, and strangely enough, the author of this novel and the novel in question are the same: Chris Crutcher. Who is Chris Crutcher, and does he really think that he's that famous?

I am so disappointed in this novel. It is billed as a Lovely Bones for boys, but that is not at all what it is. It turns out to be some creepy, anti-Christian diatribe, and I cannot recommend it to anyone. And it is so hypocritical!!! On the one hand, the author is defending everyone's right to read. On the other, he condones stereotypes about Christians and portrays them as one-dimensional and intolerant. There is nothing liberal and open-minded about the hate and stereotypes he promotes in this novel.

This is the strangest young adult novel I've ever read. I'm wondering whether all of Crutcher's books are this awful.

1/22/06