Carver

Blind and fatherless since the age of two, ten-year-old Jon struggles to fit in at his new public school and hide his growing interest in wood carving from his mom who still mourns the death of Jon's father who hoped to become a professional wood carver.

Grade 4-6-- Jon hears the ball land near him, and a voice asking him to throw it back. "Where is it?" he calls, and the boy asks, "Are you blind?" "Yeah!," Jon answers. His father died in the accident that blinded him when he was two. Now ten, Jon is back in his birthplace, attending school for the first time with sighted children and with a teacher who doesn't want to teach a blind child. And this is the year he tries to realize his ambition, to carve decoys as his father had. Jon wants the best teacher, but that happens to be an embittered man known to the town as Carver, a recluse who chases everyone away. In nine flowing chapters, Radin weaves together the themes of death, disability, and love. The story is told in simple, well-constructed prose, pulling readers toward the climax in which Jon tells his mother that he, like his father, has become a carver. And the mother, who has carried her memories with pain finds that Jon's carving releases her and allows her to sing again. Through Jon's story, readers learn gentle lessons about determination, the process of grieving, and the renewing powers of love. --Constance A. Mellon, Department of Library & Information Studies, East Carolina Univ . , Greenville,
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.