Stone Water

The issue of euthanasia is the focus of a story about a teenager, Grant, as he confronts the difficult and lonely struggle of deciding whether or not to abide by his grandfather's wishes of not being put on a life-support system when transferred to the terminal ward.

Grade 6-10-Grant, 15, has a close relationship with his grandfather. When a stroke necessitates moving Grandpa into "The Other Wing" at The Home, the teen knows it is time to open the special envelope from him. With the letter is a tape relating a story about Grant's great-great-grandfather, who survived a blizzard with Indians whose Chief died during the ordeal. The book title echoes the message, "Nothing lives long except the rocks." As Grandpa's condition declines, Grant grapples with the letter's request for assisted suicide. Neither of his lawyer parents, especially his undemonstrative father, is approachable on the subject. School activities before eighth-grade graduation counter the weight of his burden, but Grant's weekly Saturday visits to The Home constantly remind him that it's his decision alone to make, and that life-support has another meaning beside machinery. Gilbert has emphatically shaped this ethical and emotionally laden issue into Grant's personalized dilemma, braiding in the elements of ethics, law, and religion. It is the boy's love for his grandfather that provides the answer. The handling of this difficult subject is thoughtful, poignant, respectful, and honest; though the author's bias is evident, the sentiments ring true and resonate.
Julie Cummins, New York Public Library
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

After suffering a massive stroke, Grandpa Hughes, lying unconscious in a nursing home bed, cannot communicate his wishes to his family, but Grant, who understands the bull-headed rancher better than anyone, is sure that his grandfather is ready to die. Unfortunately, no one puts much stock in the 14-year-old's opinions, so, when Grandpa Hughes is put on life support, Grant takes matters into his own hands. Readers, who for several chapters have followed the protagonist's moral dilemmas and stalemated arguments with his attorney father, may not be shocked by Grant's decision to "play God"; those who doubt the teen's judgment will be reassured by Grandpa Hughes's last-minute awakening, when he urges his grandson to help him die. Acknowledging the controversial nature of her subject, Gilbert states in an author's note that her purpose is not to "take a stand on the issue of assisted suicide" but rather "to tell a story." Still, her political views are only thinly veiled in this emotionally charged first novel; the author's personal vision of the meaning of life, death and love adds power and heft to her narrative. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

An Oklahoma teenager sees his mother gunned down, then becomes the quarry of a militia group in this page-turner-with-a-twist. Hidden in a log, Walker hears the shot and the falling body, peers through a knothole to see the corpse and the armed men who come to haul it away, then sets off, numbly but cautiously, through the Oklahoma woods toward the nearest town. Gilbert (Broken Chords, 1998) fills in the back story as he goes, but the life that Walker has made for himself over the ten years since he and his parents moved into the remote area has gone glimmering in the wake of his father David's sudden revelation that he's an undercover FBI agent sent to infiltrate the local Soldiers of God. Cover blown, the family had split up in an effort to escape--so where is David? Alive or also dead? The author tumbles together short chapters of current action with flashbacks and actual, ominous passages from recent books and articles about the militia movement, cranking up the suspense as Walker is injured, recaptured, then escapes, rescuing his father along the way. And then, Walker's entire heroic flight is revealed as a trauma-induced hallucination, spun out over days of semi-comatose reaction to his mother's murder. By the end, months after at least some of the Soldiers of God have been rounded up, he is just beginning to heal, and to forgive his dad. Focusing most closely on Walker's mental state, the author only sketches out the individual characters of his captors (many of whom are neighbors or schoolmates), leaving a more distinct impression of their rhetoric and capacity for violence than their motivations. Still, readers will be hooked by the intensity of this nightmarish psychodrama. (Fiction. 11-15) -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Hidden inside a log, 15-year-old Walker alternates between consciousness and unconsciousness as members of the Soldiers of God swarm the woods looking for his mother and his father, an FBI infiltrator. Flashbacks crisscross with hallucinations as Walker remembers growing up among good people whose prejudices and fears cause them to fight real and imaginary wars with their government and fellow citizens. Although Gilbert downplays the overt church-sanctioned violence, the seemingly God-ordained evil and disregard for life that permeate the story are offered without any real explanation, making the book controversial. Heightening the tension and authenticity of the chilling scenario are "Scraps," references to statements about militia and White Patriot groups that Gilbert has gathered from newspapers, books, and magazines. Many readers will be confused by the abrupt change of focus at the story's end, but that aside, this is unquestionably a book that will create thought-provoking discussion. Frances Bradburn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved