Skip to main content

When the Whistle Blows

By

Fran Cannon Slayton
Philomel, 2009. 159 pgs. Juvenile fiction.
The whole of this book is greater than the sum of its parts. Narrated by Jimmy Cannon, a young boy growing up in an Appalachian railroad town, the story takes place on successive Halloweens (his father's birthday) beginning in 1943 and ending with his father's death in 1949. Jimmy loves steam trains and wants to be a railroad man like his father and his older brothers, but his passion is thwarted by the advent of diesel engines and his father's steadily pushing him in a different direction. But most of the book is about what it was like to grow up in Rowlesburg, West Virginia in the 40s--from Jimmy and his friend hucking rotten cabbages on Halloween night at . . . the wrong car to their winning effort in a football game against the hated Kingwood Stags. Sorrow doesn't pass the small town by, either, when a boiler blows on the 7049 out of Tunnelton and fathers, sons, and brothers die. Though Jimmy passes through many maturing experiences, his voice and preoccupations don't seem to change much until the end of the story and Ms. Slayton gets a bit simile-happy here and there. Still, When the Whistle Blows is a gentle, life-affirming, father and son story that stays in the heart, as do the many characters young and old, large and small, who live on in this story of the West Virginia hill country.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Funny Farm by Mark Teague 2009

By Anonymous
There are things I liked about Mark Teague's newest book, Funny Farm , and things I didn't like. Where should I start? I'll do the "didn'ts" first. The illustrations show animals personified. Well, some of the animals are. The main characters, Edward, and his farm family relatives, all dogs, are humanized. They stand upright, do farm chores, eat at a table, wear clothes, knit (yes, with paws) and sleep in beds. Most everybody else on and around the farm, who are also animals, act like animals. They are outside, roll in mud, live in the barn, and require care from their owners. It struck me the most on the page spread where there are pigs playing in puddle in the rain and Edward, a black and white boxer, watches from inside the house. I thought "You're a dog! Go play with them!" But, alas, he can't, seeing as how he goes through his entire visit to the farm wearing a suit and red bow tie. Another picture that bothered me was the maple syrup pa...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester 2008

By Anonymous
J Fiction 328 pages I almost didn't finish this book. I got to Chapter 4, and was just about ready to quit (a kind of slow story about a girl, name of Piper McCloud, who discovers she can fly, parents freak out, she becomes a social outcast, yadda, yadda) but suddenly, right there in Chapter 4, the story takes a sharp turn and becomes really interesting . Piper finds herself in the company of others like her, but not "fliers", and under the care and authority of Dr. Hellion. I won't even tell you any more. Read this book. Forester does a great job of keeping you wondering who's the good guy and who's the bad? Piper is a likeable, strong, endearing character that girl readers will enjoy. But don't NOT give it to boys! The main male character is an extremely intelligent young man who is one of the ones you wonder about . . . good or bad? This is a good one, well worth your time.
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more