Billy Bartholomew is dead, or is
he?  Eddie Proffit Billy’s best friend
finds Billy lying on the floor with sheet rock on top of him.  Billy’s neck is broken.  The physical part of Billy is gone but
Billy’s spirit lives on in the mind of Eddie Profit.

Eddie Proffit also loses his father
in another freak accident.  Within a
very short period, Eddie has lost the only two people in the world that
understand him.  As a result, Eddie
quits talking.  Eddie starts to hear
things and realizes with some difficulty that his friend has come to help him
through this tough time.

Eddies mother leans on the Reverend Tarter for
support but the Reverend has other motives. 
The Reverend is convinced by Eddie’s actions that he needs to be
baptized. 

The Reverend Tarter who teaches
English leads the fight to ban Warren Peece by Chris Crutcher from Eddie’s
English class.  Eddie’s enrolled in Ms.
Lloyd’s class.  Ms. Lloyd is the
librarian at the school and teaches Really Modern English.  She prefers books written by
"live" authors at Bear Creek High School.  Eddie read the book and liked it.  He finds he can identify with the characters.  He believes the book has some significance
and should be kept in the school.

Billy’s father becomes Eddie’s new
friend.  Only he and Eddie know what
it’s like to lose a loved one and best friend. 
Eddie begins to talk to Billy’s father and they agree that it will be
their secret that Eddie can really talk. 

Billy’s father is the janitor at
the high school and reads the book aloud to the students in the boiler
room.  He too thinks the book should
remain in the school but is found out and loses his job.

At a public hearing a student comes
out and says they are gay.  Another
announces the she cuts herself.  Billy
now seeing his friend on the sledding hill finds courage to stand up for what
he believes in and speaks out.

The book had a lot of interesting
twists and turns.  The author cunningly
uses Warren Peece as the title of the book being banned from the school.  Mirrored by War and Peace written by Tolstoy
which depicted social injustice but concluding that there was a minimum of free
choice.

The author puts himself in the
story and reverses the narration of the story. 
There could be some metaphysical meaning found in the story also.  This isn’t light reading, so be prepared to
read it a couple of times to get the real impact and meaning of the book.

© 2006 Patricia Ball

Patricia
Ball, B.A., applies the following descriptions to herself:

• Research Chemist for 23 years
• BA degree in Biology, Elms
  College
• Recent graduate of Institute
  of Children’s Literature
• Wife and Mother of two
• Published Poet/Writer
• Enjoy composing music, art,
  writing, reading
• Interested in Metaphysics,
  Psychology and Science
• Enjoy traveling:  USA,
  Canada and Europe

Categories: Children