The Sledding Hill / Chris Crutcher / 230 pages

Eddie Proffitt is "not talking because it's one of the few things he can control when everything else is out of control..."  He lost both his father and his best friend, Billy Bartholomew within months of each other and was the person to discover both of their bodies.  Uniquely told from first person point of view, from the voice of the dead Billy Bartholomew, the book deals with censorship, misguided organized religion and the importance of freedom, including the right to read.  The librarian in the book teaches one class in high school- Really Modern Literature.  She requires that each student read 15 novels by living authors during the course and record at least one line from each book that is personally meaningful to the student.  One book is required, Warren Peece, by Chris Crutcher, and this is the book that raised a storm of controversy.  Great read!