Customer Reviews

Whirligig

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As an English teacher, I am always looking for books that will hook my students. This is definitely one of them! I was entranced with this story from the first page. There are so many wonderful subplots in addition to the story of Brent. Everyone can learn valuable lessons by reading this book.

Brent Bishop can never fit in, so he tries to kill himself. Driving home from a party where he is totally humiliated, Brent deliberately crashes his car. He lives, but takes another's life. A young woman, Lea, dies in the accident, & her mother wants only one thing from Brent. He must build four whirligigs in Lea's likeness & place them in the four corners of the United States.

Brent makes his whirligigs much like Paul Fleischman constructs his heartwarming novel. The story moves seamlessly back & forth between Brent's journey to piece his life together, & glimpses into the lives of the fragile people who encounter each whirligig. Their stories in each simple chapter build a satisfying & uplifting whole, just like Brent's creations. This tale of redemption & restoration is a thing of beauty that will bring any reader joy.

"We can never know all the consequences of our acts." What a statement! These consequences can be good or bad--it all depends on the direction we choose throughout our lives. Through a tragic accident, Brent Bishop, found these consequences to be an unwanted invitation to the realities of life. Although Whiligig has a heavy lesson for us all, you will find it to be an enjoyable read. It is fast paced and allows you to look at the effects of one decision and how it changes the lives of many different people.

Brent Bishop's family has moved to Chicago because of his father's new job. With his father's increase in salary, Brent is able to go to a private school for the first time. But his new high school does not welcome Brent like he had hoped for. He found himself playing the all-to-familiar game of tyring to fit in with the popular crowd. One night at a party, Brent finds that fitting in with the popular crowd leaves him with the feeling of being rejected. Brent's feelings of rejection take him on a journey which meets a tragic fate.

It's through this tragedy that Brent is forced to find meaning in life. Brent finds forgiveness and a new hope for the future by traveling to the four corners of the country experimenting with his new skills in carpentry.

Sometimes some of the most important lessons are learned through the expense of a tragedy. Paul Fleischman gives us a chance to reflect on how our decisions in life can change us in a split second. But even when we make bad decisions, there is always a lesson to be learned and our lives can more forward. Fleischman also shows us the harsh reality that our decisions not only effect us as an individual but the decision effects the people around us.

This book is great for junior high students who are looking forward to going to high school. It is also good for high school students who are beginning to make life-changing decisions. Plus, there is a lesson on forgiveness for adults. A book is always good when it can target such a varied audience.

When I read the book Whirligig, I realized how precious life is. Before I read it, I had a very narrow mind when it came to seeing the beauty of life. The author, Paul Fleischman, did a great job with his style of writing. He wrote the book so that you could easily pull one of the many lessons out. In the beginning of the story, you meet Brent. He seems to be an average teenager, but he has a lot of emotional issues. Because of the fact that his family is always moving, he has a hard time fitting in, so he is always trying to be cool. When Brent goes to a party dressed wrong, and gets put down by a girl he likes, he attempts suicide. However, Brent does not succeed in his quest. Instead, he does something much worse. His actions cause someone that he hurt to ask him of one request; he has to build a whirligig in each in each corner of the United States. Though the task seemed unusual, Brent set off to keep the memory of all that he had taken, alive. As you read on, you follow Brent on his journey across the country as he meets new friends, makes new whirligigs, and discovers the meaning of life. In a way, the author wrote this book as if it were a whirligig itself. Like a whirligig, it has many different parts to it. It is colorful, sad, and beautiful. It will, and has touched many lives, and like a whirligig, I am sure that it will never cease to live.

This book demonstrates how one accident can change your whole life. Sixteen year old Brent Bishop leaves a high school party drunk and tries to end his life by taking his hand of the steering wheel of his car. He blacks out and when he wakes up, he discovers that he has killed another another person, Lea. Instead of the death penalty, he will have to do a task chosen by Lea's mother. His task is to make four whirligigs and put them in the four corners of the U.S. Brent's deed affects other people around the the country by giving them hope, and confidence. I like the whole idea of a whirligig because it was Lea's favorite toy as a child. The whirligig also symbolizes the many twist and turns of Brent's life. Paul Fleshman has a very unique style of writing by throwing in the tiniest detail to make the story an ounce better. I recommend this book from anyone eleven through nineteen.

As a high school senior in an Advanced Placement English class, I enjoy reading good literature -- and when I saw a copy of "Whirligig" on my teacher's desk for her freshmen students, it caught my attention. Although not Jane Eyre or Great Expectations, I begged my teacher to allow my class to read it -- it sounded mesmerizing from its description on the jacket. And mesmerizing it was. A great book which not only alludes to topics such as forgivness and self-realization, Whirligig presents a timely and entertaining story about the consqeunces of our actions. Recommended for readers of any age, Whirligig can be a springboard for an enlightened discussion on several aspects. Though it probably won't surpass The Scarlett Letter or Macbeth in the literary canons of English teachers, Whirligig proves a valid educational point: someties Juvenile Literature can be just as influential to young minds as the classics.

This is the best new book I have read in a long time. It combines a good message - you cannot escape the consequences of your actions - with a wonderful story-telling style and lively, well-drawn characters.

Brent Bishop is a young man on a mission - to become popular in his new school - and he is determined to do this at a party he isn't strictly invited to. While at the party, he gets drunk and, after suffering humiliation at the hands of a good-looking girl, he leaves the party and tries to kill himself.

He is not killed. Instead, a young lady, Lea, deeply involved in the community, dies in the crash. Brent's parents try to negate his guilt, and fail. He then goes to a meeting with Lea's mother. She sends him on another, different mission: to go to the four corners of the country and build whirligigs there, each with Lea's face on them.

So Brent sets off. On the way, he meets tremendously varied characters, such as a bicyclist from Canada, a waitress in a Florida restaurant, and a watercolor artist in Maine. Each of these people play their own part in Brent's transformation from a shallow, popularity-chasing boy into a responsible, generous man.

Intercut with Brent's story are other stories, the stories of people his whirligigs affect. There's a school-girl from Maine who gets a boyfriend after doing guided imagery with a friend of hers. And there's the Puerto Rican street cleaner who finds peace and relaxation from the noises and bustle of his daily life. Or the young boy, adopted from Korea, or the teenager in San Diego whose Grandmother is dying.

This is a story of consequences, of things lost and things found, and a beautifully written one at that. Bravo, Mr. Fleischman. Thank you for writing this book.

WOW! I am a 14 year old male who loves to read. This book really sticks out when I think of all the books I've read, and trust me, I've read a lot. Although it is short (I read it in 3 3-4 hour incrimants) it still has a great plot and ends with no loose strings. Some other books I recommend are: Any book by Jack Weyland, Zel, Storyteller's Beads, Harry Potter series, The Hobbit, Holes, My Brother Sam is Dead, Small Steps, Shadow Spinner, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Lyddie.

WHIRLIGIG starts out like so many other young adult books. Brent is a shallow high school junior who really wants to fit in with the popular crowd. He drinks too much at a party, a pretty girl he has a crush on publicly humiliates him and as result he makes a stupid decision that results in the death of a teenage girl in another car whom he has never met. Then the book takes a highly unusual and creative turn. As part of his probation he meets with the dead girl's mother and she makes the strange request that Brent travel to the four corners of the United States (Florida, Maine, California and Washington) and erect a whirligig in each state in memory of her daughter. This request does strain credibility and the book takes a turn to fable instead of realistic fiction at this point. In nonlinear chapters Fleischman has a person (one from each state) whose life is changed by seeing one of Brent's whirligigs narrate their story. In other chapters Brent's cross country Greyhound bus tour is described with special focus on the cirumstances in which he builds and places the four whirligigs. There is a strong theme throughout the book of how the consequences of one's actions effect others. In continuation of this theme Brent briefly meets numerous people on his travels who influence him in their short time together and help him grow to be a good person. This is a very quick read and though I can see how it could be confusing to some the patient reader will soon see the book's pattern and be well rewarded. Highly recommended for middle school students and up as well as adults.

Imagine that you in Chicago, you just moved, your a high school student, you like this one girl, your going to a party with new friends. Now you are at the party, you see the girl, you go to ask her out, but it happened she yells at you to get away from her. You leave the party and you start driving and you try to kill yourself but something happened you kill an innocent person just standing there. Now you in the beginning of Whirlgig by Paul Fleischman, a book about a boy named Brent,s journey to place four whirligigs in the memory of Lea, the girl he killed.
Lea's mother asked that he travel and place the whirligigs in the four corners of the Untied States so the other people can have the joy of knowing Lea's spirit. "This is my request. That you make four whirligigs, of a girl that looks like Lea. Put her name on them. Then set them up in Washington, California, Florida, and Maine------the corners of the Untied States." (41)
Brent is given an unlimited bus ticket, gets the tools so that he can build the whirligigs, and a picture of Lea. " Their luggage held shirts and pants; his held slabs of plywood, a saw, a hand drill, dowels, brass rods, pliers, a quart of varnish, nail, paints." (43) As he travel around the country he meets new people and learns more about himself and the type of person that he wants to be.
One of the people he meets, Emil helps show him the fun of this country. Emil takes Brent with him around the city and gives him a gift.
Also though out the book you meet some of the people who saw the whirligigs and got joy from the whirligigs or other feeling. One of those people is Anthony, a teenager from Washington who see the first whirligig. "As if she is a real person." (80)
The main theme of this book is sort of like adventure. The book is more about finding what you enjoy and your views on things. The people who are effected from the whirligigs are from all different background.