Trouble

I am always shocked to find unusual similarities between the last book I read and the current book I'm reading. They always seemed connected - like I was meant to read them in that order. This has been happening to me for years and I can't possibly go back and catalog all of the instances. Someone else might not think anything of it, but it always seems "other-worldly" to me. Occasionally, the books aren't read consecutively, and this is such an instance. I read Trouble by Gary D. Schmidt several books ago and I'm currently reading Scat which I will get to here in a few days I'm sure. In both books, a character loses an entire arm. That JUST occured to me this morning. Now that I'm sitting here, Shark Girl from last year's Caudill list also had a character losing an arm! Maybe that's not so unusual after all. It just sets mind off wondering about the implications of losing a limb ... Perhaps this isn't such a profound "similarity" as I usually find. But it was a jolt to my system.

Schmidt is an author that has come to my attention through Newbery Honors. He has written Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy and The Wednesday Wars. The latter is one of my all time favorites! It is so funny that I had to read a chapter out loud at the breakfast table. I HIGHLY recommend it. The first is also very well-written and I enjoyed it, it is just that The Wednesday Wars is, in my opinion, one of the best. All three deal with race-relations and prejudice to some extent. And all three are also, considered historical fiction, by the standards of our young readers. They are all set in the twentieth-century. Trouble is set in the long ago 80's, although I must confess that I didn't notice that until now. Must be my age. I will have to go back and read it now that I know these kids are MY age!

I was surprised by Trouble, initially, because it was already in Young Adult, and Juvenile didn't have a copy. Always makes me wonder why we don't have it. What was the deal-breaker? Then I was startled by its dark tragedy. It is so very different from the humorous WW. Henry Smith and his family are from a wealthy and long-established New England family. The Smith family home was built 300 years ago in Massachusetts and the Smith's have always lived there. Henry's father has always said that you live far from Trouble and Trouble will never find you. Except that Trouble has found the Smith family and it doesn't matter how hard they try to hide from it, there is no escape from Trouble.

Henry is finishing his years at a prestigious junior high and looking forward to joining his older siblings at an elite high school. Henry has an all-American older brother, Franklin who can do no wrong. Henry idolizes him and his accomplishments and feels like he can never catch up, let alone surpass, next next "American Hero". Henry's older sister Louise has also established herself as both an academic and an athlete. This is too much pressure for Henry and it doesn't help that his brother teases and bullies him, but he accepts it as his lot in life.

Then the fateful night arrives when Franklin is mortally injured by a hit and run driver. Franklin is in a coma and he has lost an arm. "Bigger Than Life" Franklin has been reduced to a pale shell of his former self. The family is forced to wait for a final outcome. Franklin's brain shows "indeterminate activity" which particularly bothers Henry. Henry tries to continue a normal life with his mother stoicly chauffering him around. Louise won't leave her room even to eat. Henry's father won't leave the house even to go to his job. Henry doesn't know what is worse. His father's grief or his mother's stoicism. Henry's best friend provides the comic relief and fills in with the ribbing where Franklin has had to leave off.

Not far from Henry's quaint New England town, is a blue collar ghost town that has been recovered by Cambodian refugees. One refugee, Chay, attends the same private high school as the Smiths. His family has worked hard and sacrificed much to get him a quality education. It has not been easy for Chay to attend a White Anglo Saxon Protestant dominant high school. He has been hazed by students and treated unfairly by the administration. It doesn't help that Chay turns himself over to the police for hitting Franklin with his pickup truck. It hurts community and race relations further when a plea bargain gives Chay freedom on probation instead of jail time.

This is not the whole story. There is a stray dog to save. There is a mountain to climb. There is a ship in the harbor to uncover. And there are two families suffering that want to be left alone by the media and the community, but are hounded at every turn. There are more twists and turns in this novel than I was prepared for. I love its story of forgiveness and also the message that sometimes the bullies you should be most frightened of are the bullies that you live with.