Whirligig
4/5
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About this ebook
When sixteen-year-old Brent Bishop inadvertently causes the death of a young woman, he is sent on an unusual journey of repentance, building wind toys across the land.
In his most ambitious novel to date, Newbery winner Paul Fleischman traces Brent's healing pilgrimage from Washington State to California, Florida, and Maine, and describes the many lives set into new motion by the ingenious creations Brent leaves behind.
Paul Fleischman is the master of multivoiced books for younger readers. In Whirligig he has created a novel about hidden connections that is itself a wonder of spinning hearts and grand surprises.
Paul Fleischman
Paul Fleischman's novels, poetry, picture books, and nonfiction are known for innovation and multiple viewpoints. He received the Newbery Medal for Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices and a Newbery Honor for Graven Images, and he was a National Book Award finalist for Breakout. His books bridging the page and stage include Bull Run, Seek, and Mind's Eye. For the body of his work, he's been the United States nominee for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award. He lives in California. www.paulfleischman.net.
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Reviews for Whirligig
161 ratings22 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good, deep book
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This was a powerful book. I first read it when I was about ten, probably a bit too young, but it was a really good book about cause-and-effect and restorative justice. It's intellectual without being too heavy-handed. The writing is poetic and angry, sometimes funny. Great book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I loved every minute of reading this book, and I could barely contain my happiness when junking, contra dancing, and bookcrossing appeared in the end. Yes, those are some of the few things that make life so precious, even if you've made a fool of yourself or done something that makes you think it's time to quit. Just as Brent's whirligigs touched the lives of others he would never meet, Fleischman reminded me of some important lessons about life with this heartwarming story. The fact that the library discarded this makes no sense to me...wait, yes it does; thank you, Utica Public Library!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Great story of a journey showing how people come together to affect each other in surprising ways
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I think this book would have been better if I had not listened to it. I think I missed some important parts. Also some of the people really annoyed me, and I think it was because of their voices. It was good, though... meaningful and pretty well written. I had expectations that things were going to come together differently at the end, so I was a bit thrown off when it was over.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A sometimes interesting look at how our lives touch other people's in unexpected ways. Features characters not always seen in YA -- a middle-aged Latino father, an old woman dying of cancer, a Filipino teenage girl. Nothing inappropriate here and lots to think about. The only potential problem is an attempted suicide at the beginning of the book. A tiny bit of alcohol at the beginning. But I think it's fine for sixth grade on up.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Driving home drunk after a socially disastrous party, high-schooler Brent tries to end his own life, but ends up taking someone else's, a girl named Lea. For retribution, her mother asks him to build whirligigs and place them at the four corners of the country. In alternating chapters, we follow Brent on his literal and psychological journey and see the lasting effect of the whirligigs on other people who find them.
This is a short book, and a quick read, although not for an impatient reader. The beginning is a bit confusing, as we see people interacting with the whirligigs before we know that Brent is building them. Nonetheless, this is a compelling and thoughtful story about the lasting effects of our actions- both good and bad.
I picked this up again after reading Chris Lynch's Free Will, because I wondered if the whirligigs in that book might be an homage to this one. I enjoyed it every bit as much as I did the first time all those years ago. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Impressive and beautifully crafted novel by Paul Fleischman! I loved the organization of the chapters and how Brent's story and quest to memorialize Lea is intertwined with individual stories of each whirligig and the influence it has on others. This is such a strong book to demonstrate the power of choices and their consequences, but amidst tragedy and poor decisions, Brent's character is really admirable, and it is refreshing to see him heal as he creates his final whirligig.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Within the first twenty pages, Brent has done something almost unforgivable: He gets drunk and wrecks his car, killing another teenager. What he can't tell anyone is that he was trying to commit suicide at the time.Since he's a minor, and his parents are rich, Brent serves no jail time. Instead, the dead girl's mother asks him to build a whirligig at each of the four corners of the United States in her daughter Lea's memory. So Brent sets out for Washington with a backpack, a saw, and an old book on building whirligigs.After each of Brent's chapters is a chapter that takes place long after the whirligigs have been built, showing how the whirligigs themselves affect the lives of the people who see them, showing that our good actions--not just our bad--can ripple outwards into the future.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Very good, very moving story of redemption. Plus I just like Fleischman. He doesn't pull any crazy stunts. Very effective.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Brent is a teenager who tries to commit suicide while driving. His attempt at suicide results in the death of a teenage girl, rather than himself. Brent just wants to get away; making and placing four whirligigs at each corner of the U.S. per request of the girl's mother is his ticket to getting away. Along his journey alone, Brent learns a lot about himself and matures.The book would be useful in a discussion about how outcomes can seem so clear, but something different results.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This book didn't have a big affect on me like I thought it would. The way the chapters were set up was kind of confusing and difficult to read. I think everything could have gotten into more detail. I couldn't really see the change in the main characters feelings and everything seemed "too convenient."
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Drunk and socially rejected by his new peers, Brent decides to end his life. His plan backfires and he escapes the car accident he caused with minor scrapes and bruises, while taking the life of 18-year-old Lea Zamora. Lea's mother requests that Brent quest to the four corners of the United States and build four whirligigs in Lea's memory, and Brent accepts rather than return to his shattered life. On this journey, Brent not only learns to make whirligigs, but he learns about himself too, and what it means to live with the consequences of his actions. His whirligigs affect the lives of others as well, as Brent carries out his mission.A heartbreaking and inspiring novel that I would recommend for all ages.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A teenage boy is responsible for another's death in a drunk driving accident. He sets up a whirligig in all 4 corners of the US as atonement. The book is more about the healing for the boy and the mother of the accident victim than about drinking and driving. This would be a great book for discussion.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Brent Bishop, high school junior, just wants to fit in. He thinks the party at the home of one of the popular kids at his new school will be his big chance, but the evening could not have turned out worse. Brent makes a fatal mistake, and must set out across the country to right the wrong he has committed. Like the whirligigs Brent is commissioned to create, in honor of a girl he never knew, Paul fleischman brings together four unrelated characters - with their own stories of love, acceptance, forgiveness, and peace - as they are each affected in their own way by Brent's work. The main story, of course, is that of Brent and his journey toward redemption and peace. Fleischman demonstrates well how our actions - good or bad, deliberate or accidental - can have the power to change someone's life. This multi-layered story is thought-provoking and beautifully told from the perspective of the different characters, with times and places shifting in each chapter.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A young boy decides to end his life, instead he accidentally takes the life of another. The victim's mother requests that he build whirligigs in honor of her daughter, to make people smile the way she did in life. Follows the boy as he journeys across the country, putting himself together after the car crash that changed his life. Also shows how each of the whirligigs have positively impacted someone's life.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I love how all the stories intertwine. I'm still working it all out in my head, but I thought this story was beautiful.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My husband and I read this one aloud to each other. Loved the concept of the boy making ammends by taking on the task of building whirligigs and setting them in the four corners of US learning life lessons along the way.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Brent is all caught up on the his new social life in Chicago. His father has just had another transfer and it's all about fitting in. When he goes to a party and is called out by the girl he really likes,everythingbecomes too much for him. As he's driving along the high-way, a voice inside his head tells him he doesn't have to deal with life anymore, that he has the power to end it all. So Brent closes his eyes and lets go of the wheel. He's fine, but it turns out he hit another car. He later learns the person he hit has died. He speaks to the mother of the girls he has killed, and she asks him to do one thing- make 4 whirligigs, put one in each corner of the U.S.- California, Washington, Florida, and Maine. And for some crazy reason he says he'll do it.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This was a quick and easy read. You can feel the main character grow through his efforts to build the whirligigs and it was enjoyable to follow along. It makes you want to travel, and it also makes you want to take up woodworking and learn an instrument. Good read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Brent Bishop has moved around a lot, so he knows "the rules" of trying to fit in at different high schools. A lot of these things have to do with status and appearance: the right clothes, cars, girlfriends. Those things matter to Brent. After getting humiliated at a party, he decides to end his life. The car crash he gets in doesn't kill him but instead it kills Lea, an 18-year-old with a bright future. Her mother gives Brent the task of building whirligigs in Lea's honor at the four corners of the United States. The story is interwoven with vignettes of how the whirligigs touch the lives of people who come across them. The story is beautifully written and the structure of the story reinforces the themes of interconnectedness, loss, and healing. Brent is a person transformed by his experience.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Every young adult should be made to read this short novel about actions and consequences.
Book preview
Whirligig - Paul Fleischman
Party Time
Brent turned toward his clock. It was five thirty-five. He hated the hours before a party. A nervous energy whipped back and forth inside him. He focused again on the computer’s screen and careened through the video game’s dark passages, firing at everything speeding toward him, borne along by the never-ending music.
Brent!
His mother’s voice echoed up the stairs. Brent paused the game. The firing and explosions ceased as if a window had been closed on a war.
Dinner!
All right.
He played on, chewing up the minutes that stretched before seven o’clock. Why couldn’t you fast-forward through time the way you could with a video? He flicked another glance at the clock. Five forty-one. Real time was a drag.
He went downstairs. His parents had started eating. When they’d moved to Chicago a few months before, they’d suddenly begun dining in the kitchen, where they’d put a small TV. Brent served himself at the counter, then took his stool at the island and watched with his parents.
The Friday sports news was on, annotated by his father’s grunts and snorts. Brent had learned to judge his mood from these. He reconnoitered his father’s long, handsome face and studied the wrinkles, fine as if scratched in with a burin, feeding into his eyes. The promotion within his car-rental company had rescued them from Atlanta’s heat, put Brent into a private school, bankrolled Brent’s mother’s furniture-buying spree, but hadn’t seemed to improve his own spirits. The caustic complaints about work had begun again. Lately, Brent had begun to feel sorry for him.
The news ended. His father reached for the remote, which Brent’s mother always put to the right of his fork when setting their places. He dodged commercials, serving the rest of the family a finely ground visual hash. Switching the control to his left hand so as to take a bite, he inopportunely dropped it when the screen showed the victims of an African famine. A child crawling with flies was wailing. Brent’s father scrambled for the remote. A white woman now faced the camera. This tragedy—
she began, then was cut off.
Let’s go there for our next vacation,
said Brent’s mother. The remark drew no comment.
I’m going to a party tonight,
Brent spoke up.
His father dismissed from the screen a male newscaster, then a woman selling detergent. Brent found himself thinking of his parents’ former spouses.
I wish I was,
said his mother.
All three watched a commercial for the new Jaguar.
What do you say, Brent?
said his father. Nice lines, huh?
Very nice,
Brent replied.
He examined his father’s words for signs that a Jaguar might now be in reach with his new salary. He imagined himself driving it, observed by the assembled student body, adding to the daydream a Calvin Klein shirt from the advertisement that followed. He put his dishes in the sink.
Write down where you’ll be,
said his mother.
He skipped upstairs and showered, scrubbing himself with medical thoroughness. Though he was in his junior year, he still only had whiskers on his upper lip and chin. He shaved his whole face anyway, then applied aftershave. He put on deodorant and gargled with mouthwash. Taking his comb, he parted his straight blond hair down the middle, confronted the mirror, then combed it straight back, like the models in GQ. He worked in the mousse, imagining the hands raking his hair were Brianna’s. Next he inspected his left ear’s gold earring. At his school in Atlanta, it had been the right ear. Likewise in Connecticut. But at the Montfort School, in the western suburbs of Chicago, it was the left. His father’s corporate climb had demanded four moves in the past seven years. Earrings were one of the first things Brent checked.
He returned to his room and flipped on the radio. Discerning what stations were considered cool was another of his moving-in tasks. No spell-chanting shaman knew better the importance of precise adherence to tradition. And keeping the right music flowing, using headphones between house and car, was as vital as maintaining a sacred flame. With the room now prepared, Brent set about dressing. It was May and no longer rib-rattling cold. He considered his large collection of T-shirts, weighing their logos, color, and condition. To impress without risking being made fun of was his mission, the latter especially important in the case of a party at Chaz’s. Especially when you hadn’t actually been invited.
He chose khakis and his Chicago Bulls T-shirt. He attached his wallet chain to a belt loop, tucked the wallet in his back pocket, then couldn’t decide whether or not to wear his Vuarnet sunglasses. He finally stuck them in his shirt pocket as a compromise, then looked at the clock. It was six-thirty—still too early to leave. For half an hour he played video games, losing all of his lives in short order, the radio booming over the games’ noise, his mind elsewhere. At seven he took off.
He drove to Jonathan’s and honked. His friend bounded out, lanky and loose-jointed as a clown, wearing a Cubs cap backward and a pair of shredded jeans. Instantly, Brent regretted the choice of his neatly ironed khakis. They drove off.
So how come you need a ride?
Brent asked.
Forgot to pay my car insurance,
said Jonathan. My dad took the car for a month. ‘There are consequences for our acts, my boy.’ Like having to show up in your Studebaker instead of my Mazda MX-6.
"It’s a Chevy, not a Studebaker."
Jonathan winced wearily. No kidding.
A sense of humor was a luxury that Brent had never been able to afford. He was always the new kid, stumbling through the maze, never quite rich or good-looking or athletic enough to join the elite. Unless he played his cards right at the party tonight.
So how do you get there?
Get on 355,
said Jonathan. I’ll show you.
Brent drove through Glen Ellyn’s maple-lined streets. Chaz lived all the way across the city, in Wilmette, on the lake. Montfort drew from all of Chicago. It was Brent’s first private school. He’d cheered when he’d heard that his father would be making enough money to afford the tuition. Then, when they’d moved from Atlanta in March, he’d found that, measured against his new peers, he was suddenly a lot poorer than before. Getting any respect at Montfort was going to be like climbing a glass mountain.
Get on the East-West Tollway,
said Jonathan. The new song by Rat Trap was on the radio. He turned it up until the dashboard vibrated. Then we’ll take the Tri-State north. Then we’ll cut over. I’ll tell you where.
And you’re sure it’s okay, me coming?
"Trust me! I’m his friend. You’re my friend. Therefore, you and Chaz are friends. As was proven by theorem 50 in chapter 6. Stop worrying! It’s party time!"
Jumping from one freeway to another, they zigzagged across Chicago. Brent had his doubts about Jonathan’s logic. But at least he was certain Brianna would be there. This was a chance to be with her without risking actually asking her out, to be seen with her, to make a statement. To take the next step. Maybe more than one.
They found the house, clustered with cars as if it were a magnet. Cherokee, Honda, BMW, another Cherokee. Brent knew all their models and prices. Judging by the crowd, he figured they were on the late side, which was fine. It gave the impression he had other, more important things on his schedule.
He parked and put on his headphones. They approached the stone house. It was vast and turreted, looming above them like a castle. Brent reached for the knocker, but Jonathan opened the door as if it were his own.
Hey, it’s a party. Remember?
Inside, the rooms seemed too large, the ceilings too high. Brent felt out of scale. No one seemed to be around. He trailed Jonathan through the labyrinth, at last emerging onto the back patio. Music was booming from a sound system to their right. Below them, in the tennis court and on the grass and inside the gazebo, lounged the cream of the junior class. Brent felt he’d gained a glimpse of Olympus.
It was dusk. They wandered toward the others. Then Brent noticed something. He grabbed his friend’s arm.
Is there a dress code or something?
Jonathan stopped. Then he saw it too. Everybody was wearing either all white or all black.
Jesus!
Jonathan smacked his head, then grinned. "Forgot