The Sledding Hill -- Chris Crutcher

Ha.  Chris Crutcher wins.  If anyone tries to ban this one, they're going to look really, really bad, because they'll be trying to get rid of it because of the ideas in it.  Because, specifically, of blasphemy.

There isn't a single swear word in the book.  There's no sex, no actual violence (well hardly any--someone gets slapped).  So, yeah.  Like I said, if someone wants to get rid of it, basically, they'll be blatantly challenging intellectual freedom.

If you're a Chris Crutcher fan already, read it.  If you don't know him, read it anyway.  Since the book being challenged is one of his own, he even makes an appearance--and as you might expect, he's very self-deprecating.  The narrator is the main character's dead best friend, and so, of course, The Lovely Bones gets a nod.  A girl wears a tee-shirt that says, "Leviticus Sucks".  Eddie gets institutionalized because the adults in the town think that he thinks he's Jesus.

It's nothing like his other books.  This past year, his books have been challenged over and over--judging by this one, I'd say that he's BENT.  In a major way.  But, in true Chris Crutcher style, he doesn't turn the people that hate his books into monsters--even though some of them seem to view him as one.

I visited the Monkey yesterday, and Donna told me that no one working there has read it yet.  NO ONE THERE HAS READ IT YET.  The Monkey no longer has multiple rabid Crutcher fans on staff.  Which made me sad.  It also weirdly made me want to work the chapter book room for a few hours--enough time to sell all the copies that they had of his books. 

Being sane, I didn't do that.  But I'll put the word out here:  support Chris Crutcher and authors like him: authors that fight for intellectual freedom and against a small group of loud mouths controlling what books are taught in our schools and what books are in our libraries.

Comments

[Chrissy]

I should be picking it up tonight. My ENTIRE LIBRARY SYSTEM does not have it yet. grrr.

I'm also going to check out Guys Write for Guys Read by Jon Scieszka. I was intrigued by his interview over on Bookpage.

[leila]

My library doesn't have it yet, either. I bought it.

Have you looked at the Guys Read website? It's way fun.

[Chrissy]

Yep. I think he's right. There is a gap between getting girls to read and getting boys to read. The website's a little rough (navigates a little strangely for my tastes), but it's got good stuff in it. I even think the current onslaught of fantasy due to HP's popularity may be making it even worse. But it may be just because much if it seems to be not very good. Have you tried reading The Divide by Kay? The writing's atrocious.

It's hard to make that judgement call though, without being in a store and seeing what's out and what's selling. I just haven't seen any new sci-fi, humor, horror really that's stood out enough to notice in the library. I am glad about manga gaining popularity. I've even seen a couple of stores be intelligent and have 2 separate sections of it, based on age appropriateness.

[leila]

I refused to read that Divide book because the stupid cover was so obviously a retarded marketing thing. And it was a huge pain in the ass to shelve once that dinky little sticker wore off.

I'm glad to hear that it was bad, though.