Toby and his best friend Cal take on Zachary as a special project. They load him into a pickup truck and take him to the drive-in movie, and hatch a plan to get him baptized in Gossimer Lake. Both boys suffer heartbreaking personal losses that summer, and their feelings of isolation threaten their friendship. Their common concern for Zachary proves to be their redemption, and all three boys are transformed before summer�s end.
The author establishes setting in the first sentence of the book: �Nothing ever happens in Antler, Texas.� (p. 7) Antler is an imaginary town in the Texas panhandle near Amarillo and the Palo Duro Canyon. The time is the 70�s, at the height of the Viet Nam War. The setting is made believable by Holt�s inclusion of cultural trends unique to the time period. Tammy Wynette is at the acme of her career, girls wear bell-bottom hip-huggers, and people still go to drive-in movies. Library Journal (November 1, 1999) says �The setting and Vietnam-era time frame are deftly realized.�
The cast of characters in the book are quirky and colorful. Richly described details give texture to characters and bring them to life. Idiosyncrasies, such as Kate�s hopeless inability to parallel park and Scarlett�s sultry sexiness, make even secondary characters interesting and distinctive.
The first-person narrative is told through the voice of Toby, the 13-year-old protagonist. The reader is privy to Toby�s thoughts and feelings: his unrequited love for Scarlett Stalling; how he is sometimes embarrassed by the behavior of his best friend; his hero-worship of Wayne, Cal�s older brother, who is fighting in Viet Nam; and the resentment he feels toward his mother who has left him to pursue a country-western singing career in Nashville. During the course of the story, Toby must face the death of Wayne, the rejection of Scarlett, and his mother�s choice of a career over family. He forms a closer bond with his father, learns empathy for others, and reaches reconciliation with his mother and the losses he has suffered.
Initially, Zachary Beaver is rude and insulting to the curious gawkers who pay to stare at his fatness. He lies about traveling to exotic places all over the world, when he�s actually gotten his information from reading National Geographic magazines. �He's a mean liar, rude and angry, as well as achingly vulnerable.� (Booklist, September 15, 1999) When Toby and Cal arrange to take him to his first drive-in movie, and fulfill his dream of being baptized, he feels a self-worth born of friendship for the first time in his life.
The plot is an interesting mix of story lines, conflict, climaxes, and resolutions. The abandonment of Toby by his mother, the death of Wayne, and the unrequited love he feels for Scarlett, are struggles Toby copes with while maneuvering the complex relationship he develops with Zachary Beaver. Kimberly Holt brings all the story lines to a satisfactory, uncontrived resolution, with the young characters all gaining a measure of maturity and renewed relationships from the struggles they weather this fateful summer in their lives. �In the tradition of many southern writers, Holt reveals the freak in all of us--and the hope of redemption.� (Booklist, September 15, 1999)
Awards
National Book Award
School Library Journal Best Books of the Year
ALA Notable Books for Children
Great Lakes Great Books Award
Bluebonnet Award (Nominee)
Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children�s Book Award (Nominee)
Young Readers Award (Nominee)
Relevant Web Sites
Kimberly Holt Website: http://www.kimberlyholt.com
Interview with Kimberly Holt:
http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/auth-illKimberlyWillisHolt.htm
Palo Duro Canyon State Park: http://www.palodurocanyon.com/
Source
Books in Print [database online]. Available from http://www.booksinprint.com. Accessed 14 November 2004.
School of Library and Information Studies
TEXAS WOMAN'S UNIVERSITY