Alden R. Carter

I picked up this book for my son because it was set in our home state.
Heard as an audiobook. Slow introduction to the life of a Jeremy (13?) in a small town whose father is often away & whose mother died quite a while ago. Back then, you listened to your elders & said "yes sir", but it's summer and he also had a lot of time on his own. He has some chores for spending money, but there isn't a lot of money going around in his community...except for the lumber baron who is the major employer show more in his sawmill. Summer gets boring when his friends get jobs at the sawmill, even tho there are new child labor laws, because their father has been injured (besides often drinking up his wages) and they need to help pay for rent and food. Jeremy spends more time in his great-uncle's wood carving shop, where we learn the steps in carving a wooden statue, and witness the mending of old wounds between this uncle and a local Ojibwe man. His friends call him chicken for not using the railroad bridge to cross the river, but later in the story we see the consequences for someone else.
A good coming of age story, if a bit stiff or didactic at times. A lot of history is mixed in to this tale which starts with the last log drive down the Chippewa River, and workers who want to start a union being beaten by "company goons". show less

Steve, aka Wart, is a sophomore. His dad is a nearly universally-hated teacher at his high school, unaffectionately known as Toad. There's a lot of meat here, especially in light of the recent flurry of attention around the effects of bullying. Steve is bullied from all directions. He can't communicate with his dad, who is still mourning the death of Steve's mom and little sister. He feels like his dad is rougher on him than on anyone, and maybe that's true. He's bullied by the kids at show more school because of who his dad is, and let's not even talk about what happens when he asks a girl out. It sounds pretty grim, but it's not. Steve's terminally clueless voice is pitch-perfect, as is his struggle to understand a world that doesn't make any sense at all. Steve struggles with everything, but he's not afraid of the struggle, and you just know he's going to wrestle his way into being a good, kind, and thoughtful man.

I picked this up from my library's new book shelf without knowing it was a reprint of a book originally published in 1985. The casual attitudes about drugs & alcohol clearly mark this book as being from "my day" when we were way mellow. I knew right where the (staff sanctioned) student smoking lounge at my high school was, but I'm willing to bet those are rarer than ashtrays in business lobbies these days.

It's an absorbing, interesting read though it is totally a "boy book" in all senses of the word, which is probably why I missed it the first time around. show less

Today is a big day for Dustin at school. His friends Dave and Skippy are coming to school. Dusting is in second grade and has down syndrome. The book shows him going to separate teachers during the day to work for occupational therapy and to work math and reading. Dustin has a hard time focusing throughout the day because he cannot contain his excitement. Finally, Dave and Skippy arrive and even play a special song for Dustin! This is an awesome story! It shows how Dustin participates with show more the other children but also how he has times where he does different classes for himself. This would be a good book for a child with down syndrome to read. I enjoyed reading this and the pictures were great. show less

Today is a very important day: Dustin's friends (Dave and Skippy) are going to his school!
Dustin is in a Special Ed class and him and all his friends are really excited... and I was too. everyone seems to know who Dave and Skippy are and I was dying to know.
At the end we find out Skippy is a puppet and Dave his ventriloquist. I love seeing books where diversity is shown. Dustin is a young boy with Down syndrome, and although we do notice it in the pictures and in different scenes, it is not show more really focused on Dustin's disability but on his exciting day at school.He and his friends are not victimized nor glorified for their disabilities. show less