Crutcher, Chris. The sledding hill

Crutcher, Chris. The Sledding Hill. Greenwillow/HarperCollins, 2005 [0-06-050243-6]

This book centers around around a troubled boy, Eddie. Recently both his father and his best friend died. The story is narrated by Billy, his best friend who recently died and is looking after Eddie. Sometimes they meet on the sledding hill... hence the title. The trauma of the double death is too much for Eddie so he stops talking. In school a teacher introduces a controversial book which Eddie and other troubled kids really take to. Unfortunately the local minister gets the community riled up to have the book removed from school. This touching 230 page book is about death, friendship, and of course censorship. Initially it bothered me that the book which is introduced and causes a stir, is another book by Crutcher. I thought this was a little self-serving but by the end of the story you can understand why he did it.