Extra Credit #3: Whirligig

Fleischman, Paul. Whirligig. New York: H. Holt, 1998.

Annotation: A gentle novel about the importance of finding oneself in a world that is busy and complicated.

Justification for Nomination:

Brent Bishop is new in town due to his dad’s job move. He’s so excited to be in Chicago because his dad’s promotion has afforded them the opportunity to send Brent to private school. The book opens with Brent preparing to go to a classmate’s party. He wasn’t invited, but his friend says it’s cool if he comes along and besides Brent’s love interest, Brianna, will be there. When the party turns disastrously bad for Brent in the first hour of being there, Brent downs a bunch of liquor and drives away in an attempt to kill himself. Instead he winds up killing another teenager, Lea.

In mediation, Lea’s mother asks just one thing of Brent, that he create 4 whirligigs and place them in the 4 corners of the United States. She gives him a 45 day Greyhound bus pass and Brent is off on the adventure.

From Seattle to San Diego, Florida to Maine, Brent travels all over meeting many interesting people and having the opportunity to spend hours thinking about what he did to Lea and how perhaps his life isn’t worth wasting. In all his travels Brent regains a hold on how much he loves his life, how precious the life of Lea was that he took away, and how much he has to look forward to.

I believe this would be a good book for teenagers who are dealing with fitting in issues, new schools, and the wanderlust that so many teenagers have. It's a calm, gentle book about the importance of life and of how much bigger the world is beyond your home.

Genre: coming of age