Customer Reviews

Down Sand Mountain

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"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!

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.

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!

Steve Watkins sensitively re-creates the claustrophobia and emotional complexity of being 12. You begin to notice your parents' flaws. You come to share (without much real understanding) the anxiety of global events, see how pain and dysfunction thread through your family and your friends', judge societal injustices such as racism, wade through the bafflement of sexuality, parse grownup situations with a limited vocabulary. You have eaten of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but as will be your fate, can't always judge which is which, because sometimes lying is right and usually it's some of both.

Because this book is set in the 1960s, it is like a reassuring letter from parent to child. The particular issues and struggles have evolved, but the central feelings of the age are eternal. Just like Dewey's parents in their finer moments in the book, this sensitive tone extends a hand of comfort to the foreheads of Watkins' young readers (and reminds parents to slow down and pay attention for chances to do the same). Indeed, you sense Watkins' parenting experiences inform the story as much as his memories of being Dewey's age.

DOWN SAND MOUNTAIN is an intense, immersive, sad, hilarious and aching adventure. It captures the jungle social structure of high school, with predators and prey, where natural selection has cast the die for the Darwin Turkels of the world -- and maybe for us as the narrator, Dewey, too. The story elevates these universal teenage struggles to literal life-and-death -- just as they feel when you're living them. I closed the back cover marvelling that I survived.

I couldn't put this book down--I felt like I was inside Dewey Turner's head. What a great depiction of a 12-year-old boy's struggle to make friends and understand the racial tensions in his small Florida town in the '60s. It's funny, and embarrassing and heartrendingly real.
--Jennifer Motl, Wisconsin

"Down Sand Mountain" is brilliant. My nine-year-old son and I have been taking turns reading it out loud to each other--we're at Chapter 11 after two nights because we hate putting it down.

I can't tell you the joy I get from explaining the tough situations where needed and the wonderful gut-busting laughs that come from him while reading.

This morning, through the haze of sleep, I could hear him excitedly telling his father all about Dewey and his family and especially about the dog Lightning, with whom Elliott identifies as he loves to fart on me (especially when we're reading the book together). Ooops, too many beans!

So, Steve, thank you for all that you do in this world, but most especially for bringing the magic of words to my boy!

After hearing the author, Steve Watkins, speak at my school this evening I purchased a copy of "Down Sand Mountain" for my thirteen year old cousin as a Christmas gift. I was hesitant to give him a novel that I had read myself, so I curled up with his copy of the book and dug in. Pausing only for the occasional snack break or drink refill, I did not put the book down until I had finished it.
While marketed for young readers, I am hesitant to use the term young adult novel when describing this book for the sheer fact that the message and beautiful writing of this novel transcends all limitations imposed by age. The characters were easy to relate to and the messages of tolerance and acceptance so resounding that I feel this novel is well suited for any reader. Reminiscent of Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird", this is a book that will transcend generations and age to deliver an important social message.
To quickly address the brief "sexually graphic" depiction in the book I will say the following: while the scene does allude to a sexual act between two of the main characters, it is brief (totaling only four sentences) and hardly what I would call descriptive. At some point weren't many of the great classic novels shunned for "inappropriate content"?
Overall, I would highly recommend the book to any prospective buyers. I know that I greatly look forward to passing this gem onto my cousin and hope to see more of Steve's work in the near future.

What I liked best about this novel were Dewey's relationships: particularly his relationship with Darla and his relationship with his brother Wayne. Dewey's voice was very real and his coming-of-age experiences were depicted with great poignancy. I felt the story moved a little slowly in some places but overall it was a very believable story of a a 12-year-old boy growing up in a small southern town in the sixties.

I don't think Dewey Turner and his friend, Darla, ever make it together down Sand Mountain.

You'll have to read the book --- or, perhaps, you already have --- and tell me if they do. My recollection is leaning toward one conclusion about that issue --- it's been a while since I finished it, but you can let me know in your own review when you post it what you think.

It's like a lot of things about the book, though. There is not the easy this or that or black-and-white of easy thinkers there. It's not necessarily a read for the sanctimonious or for persons who would wrench all the color out of it. Hence, it can be said that the book moves a little slowly and perhaps a little delicately, but given the circumstances, maybe that's a good thing. After all, it was 1966, and even if it didn't seem to move so slowly back then, compared with today, it did.

I don't pretend to know whetherMaking Expression Less Taxing: A Freelancer's Tax Resource the youth of today can tolerate a slow read or more complex issues than puritanical crap. Of course, I don't mean to lump them all together, for in my mind, to some degree that is the message of the book: to take your time, to make a careful and considered analysis, to decide what is important, and not to make quick and hasty judgments of people, but to value everybody for their uniqueness.

I think there's a lot to say about an artificial mountain made of sand from the tailings of mining in the flat lands of Florida as it relates to Dewey and Darla and their respective trips down it. What do you think?

In 1966, 12-year-old Dewey Turner lives in Florida with his mom, dad, older brother Wayne, little sister Tink, and their loveable dog, Susie. Dewey hasn't had the best of luck with popularity; last year, kids tormented him with catching "Deweyitis." But he's positive that this coming school year will be different. He starts at the junior/ senior high school where Wayne is a year ahead of him. And it is different --- it's worse!

Just before school starts, the family goes to see the Rotary Club minstrel show. Dewey is fascinated with a song-and-dance act performed by one of his classmates whose face is blackened with makeup. At the time, he doesn't realize that the routine taunts African Americans. When he gets home, he applies shoe polish to his face and attempts his own song and dance. What he doesn't know is that the shoe polish won't wash off. The new school year starts off badly, to say the least! He definitely attracts attention, just not the kind he wants, especially from two bullies.

Dewey does have one or two bright spots, the most important of which is meeting Darla Turkel. She is not very popular either but doesn't seem to care. She wears her hair like Shirley Temple and, without warning, breaks out into song-and-dance routines of her own. In fact, her mom teaches dance lessons, and Dewey decides to sign up to get ready for next year's minstrel show. Darla is strange and unusual, but hanging out with her proves to be quite an experience. She invites him to sneak out at midnight to investigate the haunted hotel and even asks him if he'd like to kiss her.

The latter request stirs a lot of confusion in Dewey, only one of many items doing so. The Vietnam War is raging, and racial tensions have every one nervous and in turmoil. Dewey's father decides to run for an election and insists Dewey and Wayne venture down to where the African Americans live to hand out flyers, but the two aren't welcome there. And then Dewey comes face to face with a huge decision when a prank goes completely out of control. Should he turn in his brother's friend to save his own skin?

Steve Watkins has brought us an amazing story about growing up, discovering oneself, and human beings craving respect. It whisks readers back to the turbulent 1960s, to a time people should never forget for the lessons learned. And the character of Dewey Turner portrays the perfect escort back to the '60s, being sensitive and curious, likable and relatable. Watkins has a special writing style that invites teens right into the very heart and soul of Dewey. He has penned a remarkable story, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if DOWN SAND MOUNTAIN wins many awards.

--- Reviewed by Chris Shanley-Dillman, author of FINDING MY LIGHT and THE BLACK POND