THE HERO

“It was dumb, and I’m sorry,” Jamie West says after a near-disaster. He had tried to burn the weeds around his garden and, instead, almost burned the surrounding fields, hillside, and pigpen fence. Thus the author establishes the narrator’s character in the first chapter. By the end, when Jamie says, “I had to wonder what kind of boy I’d become,” we have seen a transformation in Jamie into a new boy even he doesn’t recognize. He and his cousin Jerry build a raft on a river his parents worry about, and given the title, cover art, and foreshadowing in the story, readers know the river will be the agent of transformation in this stirring tale. Jamie’s father tells the boys they are not to be Tom and Huck adventuring on the Mississippi. They must always be anchored to a rope and must never go floating off down the river. Since Jamie is not a strong swimmer and the river has two major dams downstream, the boys are not eager to disobey the father’s admonitions. However, it’s clear from the beginning, something will occur on that river. An accident does happen, tragedy strikes, and consequences result. The author mars an otherwise good story by the folksy voice he gives the narrator, who spouts one corny expression after another: “I was sure you could’ve hid Arlie’s brain in a gnat’s hind end with room to spare”; “I’d rather shampoo a porcupine.” They don’t ring true in the mouth of a 14-year-old boy, and they distract the reader. Curiously, the folksy voice is mostly dropped later in the story as the plot gets rolling. All in all, this is a good story with much excitement, a satisfying conclusion, and some moral weight. It ought to attract many readers, particularly the Gary Paulsen crowd. (Fiction. 10-14)