Down Sand Mountain [Hardcover]

Steve Watkins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 2008

In a tale full of humor and poignancy, a sheltered twelve-year-old boy comes of age in a small Florida mining town amid the changing mores of the 1960s.

It's 1966 and Dewey Turner is determined to start the school year right. No more being the brunt of every joke. No more "Deweyitis." But after he stains his face with shoe polish trying to mimic the popular Shoeshine Boy at the minstrel show, he begins seventh grade on an even lower rung, earning the nickname Sambo and being barred from the "whites only" bathroom. The only person willing to talk to him, besides his older brother, Wayne, is fellow outsider Darla Turkel, who wears her hair like Shirley Temple and sings and dances like her, too. Through their friendship, Dewey gains awareness of issues bigger than himself and bigger than his small town of Sand Mountain: issues like race and segregation, the reality of the Vietnam War, abuse, sexuality, and even death and grieving. Written in a riveting, authentic voice, at times light-hearted and humorous and at others devastating and lonely, this deeply affecting story will stay with readers long after the book is closed.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7–9—Things are anything but tranquil along the Peace River as Dewey starts seventh grade in Sand Mountain, FL, in 1966. From his nascent desire to wear blackface to play the part of the shoe-shine boy in next year's Rotary Club Minstrel show, to his dad's doomed run for city council that includes a plan to pave streets in Boogerbottom, the part of town where Negroes live, racial issues are underlying themes in the story. Layered above are Dewey's well-justified apprehensions about bullying at school, his "Americanism vs. Communism" class, and his lack of friends. Eighth-grade brother Wayne offers no help. Dancing lessons with Darla, a Shirley Temple wannabe about whom rumors circulate, and her "prissy" twin brother, Darwin, further confuse him. Vietnam vet Walter Wratchford, who rescues the miserable, soaked, dirty Dewey after he skips the first day of school to play at the creek, seems weird. The beauty is in the telling of this bildungsroman, as what is unspoken about the murky racism, sexual climate, and political realities of the time effectively build into a pervasive fog of unease. Readers will understand that Dewey's innocence dims his understanding of the politics of hate, but will easily identify with his deeply felt fears. And they'll share his wonder and confusion about his first kiss and first masturbatory sexual experience with Darla. Readers who enjoyed Gary D. Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars (Clarion, 2007) or Lance Marcum's The Cottonmouth Club (Farrar, 2005) will find sliding down Sand Mountain a faster ride, but infused with similar-and satisfying-gravitas.—Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Junior High School, Iowa City, IA
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* In 1966, a white kid discovers the cruelty in his small, segregated Florida mining town, where “everybody knew everybody else, unless they were colored,” and racism is the norm, in himself, too. All Dewey, 12, wants is to fit in and have people like him, but that gets even harder after he stains his face with black shoe polish to dance in the local minstrel show, and the white bullies choose him as a target. Then his father, a miner, runs for city council again, even though he always loses because he wants to improve the blacks’ neighborhood, where Dewey hates going. In his debut YA novel, award-winning adult author Watkins tells a classic loss-of-innocence story. The simple, beautiful prose remains totally true to the child’s bewildered viewpoint, which is comic when Dewey does not get the big picture (“you never knew what was really going on”), anguished when he finally sees the truth. The plot includes Dewey’s secret romance with his classmate and the sweet revenge on the bullies, and the daily detail about small things. Multiple local characters sometimes bogs the story. Still, there is neither too much nostalgia nor message, and readers will be haunted by the disturbing drama of harsh secrets close to home. Grades 7-12. --Hazel Rochman

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Candlewick; First Edition edition (October 14, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0763638390
• ISBN-13: 978-0763638399
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #525,858 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FIVE STARS, October 27, 2008

By 

Katherine Reichman (san diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Down Sand Mountain (Hardcover)

"Down Sand Mountain" by Steve Watkins is the greatest book in its genre I've seen in a long time. It addresses so many complex issues, but does so with the innocence and humor only a narrator like Dewey could bring to a story. I disagree with the comment about sexual content. The scene being referred to is subtle and appropriately woven into the story line. Not only would I have no problem with my own children reading this one day, but I hope it would inspire them to re-evealuate our judgement on others and the world around us the way it has inspired me!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just for kids!, March 26, 2009

By 

Suzanne Schafer (Tucson, AZ, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Down Sand Mountain (Hardcover)

DOWN SAND MOUNTAIN is a stellar first novel by a sharp and wise writer who channels his twelve-year-old self with merciless precision. It's also a subtle, searing portrait of race relations in small-town central Florida, a corner of the South far from the headlines and not much covered by the history books. It explores tensions between transplanted white liberals and fearful segregationist locals, and captures the utter and dangerous bafflement with which white and black children regard each other.

But mostly it's the story of a season in the life of a seventh-grade boy who finds himself suddenly alone in a new way: his brother, so close in age that he's felt like a twin until now, has just slipped away across that invisible line into a separate, adult awareness. We're with the boy as he painfully and bravely stumbles toward that line himself.

The year is 1966, and in chillingly matter-of-fact tones the author conveys the way the war in Vietnam--distant but seemingly eternal--colors his days and haunts his future.

If you're old enough to remember, don't miss a time-machine trip back to your childhood that holds lessons for today. If you're younger, you are in for some revelations.

This book has everything: an observant young hero who's not too wise to be authentic, a story that's suspenseful but restrained, pitch-perfect language, a vividly drawn historical moment, complicated relationships that feel completely real.

It grabs you by the pit of your stomach from the first page. It's funny and nostalgic and horrifying.

It's beautiful.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For All Ages, March 3, 2009

By 

Hank S. Hulme "Hank Hulme" (Arlington, VA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Down Sand Mountain (Hardcover)

What a great book and a great read. I am not a teenager or young adult - let's just say mature. I found myself saying I'll stop after this chapter only to begin the next chapter and saying the same thing over and over. Watkins did a masterful job of relating the reality of young teen life of confusion, lack of self-confidence, and family relationships with the grace of truth and finally triumph of that first year in a semi-adult world. Keep writing Steve!