New to town, Brent Bishop longs to stroll around school with the popular Brianna on his arm. But when Brianna begs him at a party full of schoolmates to stop hounding her, Brent’s hopes are shattered. Trying to escape his humiliation, he attempts to destroy himself in a car crash—and ends up killing Lea, an innocent teen unfortunate enough to cross his path. Lea’s mother asks one thing of Brent: that he create four whirligigs from a picture of Lea and set them up at the four corners of the United States. Lea’s mother believes that by spreading the joy that whirligigs gave Lea as a child, Brent will keep Lea’s spirit alive. And so Brent goes off with an unlimited bus ticket and the tools he needs to memorialize Lea. On his journey, he rediscovers his own love of life, and he begins to realize how—like the pieces that form the intricate whirligigs—people come together to affect each other in surprising ways.
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"This is such a cool book. The formatting, the message, the whiligigs! A young man accidentally kills a girl after drinking and driving. This sets him off on an adventure on a Greyhound bus to find and forgive himself. Outstanding! " — Emily (5 out of 5 stars)
"This is such a cool book. The formatting, the message, the whiligigs! A young man accidentally kills a girl after drinking and driving. This sets him off on an adventure on a Greyhound bus to find and forgive himself. Outstanding! "
“Complex and rewarding, this is a stellar addition to a consummate writer’s body of work.”
“The story as a whole and the inner sense of self that Brent achieves through his experiences are mesmerizing. The language of the whirligig stories gleams and soars: a metaphor of movement, dance, laughter, and irrepressible life.”
“Though Whirligig has linear movement, it impresses readers more with its sense of interconnected spiraling…There is enormous vitality and hopefulness expressed in this brief masterwork.”
“This is a cathartic story of redemption. Brent, filled with self-doubt, guilt, and a host of worries, is a character today’s adolescents will recognize and agonize with. Fleischman’s writing is filled with beautiful imagery, no more so than in the twirling arms of his whirligigs that remind readers that sustaining the human spirit in an imperfect world requires reaching out to others.”
“In an intricately structured novel, Fleischman skillfully connects the stories of several people to the evolution of his main character…Brent’s journey is an embracing and an edifying one.”
" Great twist on a serious teen topic. The protagonist learns to love life after trying to end his own. Thematic thread throughout--whirligigs. "
" Summer reading assignment between 8th and 9th grades "
" Good moral of the story, however I found it a bit too jumpy for my taste. I loved the imagery associated with Brent formulating the whirligigs <3 "
" for Jacob's English class. A really good book. "
" Reading this book for English class, it's interesting. "
" The only good thing about this book was how the author switched from 1st to 3rd person every chapter. "
" It was very confusing book. It stopped in between chapters for for this unknown character simply added for unknown reasons. And another leading drawbacks way to short. I really don't recomend this... "
Paul Fleischman has written more than twenty-five books for children and young adults. He received a Newbery Medal for Joyful Noise and a Newbery Honor for Graven Images. His novel Whirligig was named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, and Booklist. His Breakout was a finalist for the National Book Award.
James Langton, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, trained as an actor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and later as a musician at the Guildhall School in London. He has worked in radio, film, and television, also appearing in theater in England and on Broadway. He is also a professional musician who led the internationally renowned Pasadena Roof Orchestra from 1996 to 2002.
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