When Zachary Beaver Came To Town (2003) - Plot & Excerpts
Check out more of my reviews at:http://lovingliteraturemrsking.blogsp...I really had no expectations for When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt. I picked it up because a few of my students had read it this past year. Going in, I didn’t remember at all what it was about when I reached it on my list the other day. I didn’t even bother reading the back. That being said, I still felt a little disappointed.We meet Toby hanging out with his best friend Cal during the summer in a small town in Texas. They are lining up to see the most interesting thing to happen in their town in years. A trailer has pulled up and a man is charging two dollars to see the world’s largest boy. Toby and Cal eventually end up developing an odd and somewhat strained friendship with “the world’s largest boy” Zachary Beaver, but it’s just one more thing for Toby to worry about this summer.This small Texas town seemed filled with people. There are so many characters it become confusing. We of course have Toby and his best friend Cal, and also Toby’s father, important characters who could have used a bit more filling out. Zachary Beaver is also an important character whose appearance seems to be a catalyst for a lot of Toby’s realizations. Then we have the following minor characters: Miss Myrtie Mae is the town librarian and cares for her senile brother; Ferris owns the bowling alley/restaurant; Wylie Womack doesn’t speak anymore and runs the snow cone place; Katy is Cal’s sister and her role becomes more important after she obtains her drivers license; Toby’s crush Scarlett is in a relationship with Juan, and she has a bratty little sister who annoys Toby. Plus, we have the sheriff, the reverend, Cal’s parents, and his brother Billy. So many characters! This story also has two important non present characters—Toby’s mother and Cal’s brother. Toby’s mom is off in Nashville this summer pursuing her dream of becoming a country music star, and Cal’s brother Wayne is fighting in Vietnam. No one really gets to be more than a shell of a character and the actions of characters seem to come out of nowhere since we never really get to know them.For example, Toby learns that his mom isn’t coming back home after she loses a music contest—in fact, she’s not coming home anytime soon. Toby seems like a smart kid, but he doesn’t get this until half way through the book. It’s obvious to the other characters in the book that she isn’t coming back, and they allow Toby to lie to them about why his mom isn’t home yet. They know the truth but let him lie—even his father. I can understand this as Toby attempts to deal with his parents splitting up. What I don’t understand is when an even bigger tragedy, a death, affects Cal, why Toby stops being Toby. He doesn’t speak to Cal, he hides from him, and refuses to go to any of the services, even after his father has lectured him and warned him. I didn’t expect this from Toby. It didn’t make sense for his character to act like this. We also had Zachary Beaver, a key character in the book who is extremely negative and closed off, lying about the places he has been, creating up stories about his travels. He is secretive and sarcastic. It’s easy to understand why he acts this way based on how his life has been so far. What isn’t easy to understand is the baptism Toby and Cal give him at the end of the book. They have decided that this is what Zachary wants, even though he has never said it and refuses to talk about it when Cal brings it up. How exactly did they come to this conclusion? I’m not sure. When the boys plan it and “surprise” him with one, he goes—rather easily. Where did that come from? It’s explained that because it’s private and down at the lake that he’s okay with it now—but it still doesn’t sit right with me. A lot of this novel just didn’t make sense to me. I felt like characters were never really fleshed out enough to understand their decisions or actions. It seemed like it was more of a matter of convenience, and all these contrived events lead up to a blasé ending in which Zachary leaves unceremoniously, Toby goes to visit his mom, and all the issues of the summer have been nicely cleaned up and resolved.
Although “When Zachary Beaver Came to Town” by Kimberly Willis Holt got the National Book Award, I think that this is one of the books that is so uninspiring to kids in middle schools, especially to myself. Being a 13-year old boy in a small and sleepy town of Antler, Texas, Toby Wilson has a report card filled with “C” grades. He spent more time dreaming about Scarlett Stalling, an attractive girl, who had crush on somebody else. In the book, the summer of 1971 changed Toby’s boring life in Antler, as he dealed with his crush, loss, and adventure Toby and his best friend Cal started their summer by lining up in a parking lot to see the “fattest boy n the world,” a 643-pound Zachary Beaver who spent his life travelling to small towns for people to see him for $2. Despite some misunderstanding at first, Cal and Toby developed sympathy for Zachary.In this book, it seems that people around Toby, including himself, were chasing after the things or people that they could not have, at least this summer. The only good thing that I got from the book was that it accurately described Toby’s angry feelings when his mom ran off to Nashville to pursue her country singing career. It also showed that Toby cared about Cal’s brother who was fighting the Viet Nam war and died at such a young age. The book successfully changed the reader’s initial feelings about certain characters. For example, despite the fact that Toby’s mother warned him about Scarlett, that she was a flirty type not for him to get involved with, Scarlett and her poor family are more respectable than the reader’s first impression about her. Scarlett never misguided Toby about her true feelings, and her poor mother did not want her to keep Toby’s mother’s expensive pearl necklace that he gave Scarlett in an impulse moment. Also, he author’s narrow-minded view of the Viet Nam war was pitiful. The only wish I have at the end after reading the book was to wish that Toby’s mother would be awaken from her failed dream to come back to her small town of Antler to be a good wife to Toby’s father and to be a good mother to Toby, and that Toby would start getting A grades, instead of just C.
What do You think about When Zachary Beaver Came To Town (2003)?
The writing of this was crisp and clear, and easy to read, and seemed like an enjoyable novel. However, as I think on it now, there are too many loose ends and sub-plots that don't go anywhere (the whole idea of Toby trying to gain the favor of a certain young girl, and then fixing her up again with her ex-boyfriend seems pointless in retrospect).Some lofty themes and dealing with issues such as death and divorce make it easy to see why this is an award winner, but it is not a book that I would recommend to students or for study.
—Daniel
This was a fun, lighthearted book with some realistic life problems woven in. Told through the eyes of a young boy, the story is humorous and full of childhood nostalgia. It teaches lessons in friendship and love-- whether it's for a strange, ungrateful boy, a parent with big dreams, or a best friend's brother. I loved reading about the relationships the main character had with the others and how he dealt with the realities of life as they crept up on him. One of the best parts of this book was the feeling I was left with after I finished it-- a strange sadness for the challenges we all must face in life, but hope that things can get better and that we can move on. A great coming of age story!
—Miri Kennedy
I was required to read this book for a college literature class for future middle school educators. I am including the reflection that I was assigned to write after I finished the book.BTW . . . two stars may be too much for this book. When a book wins awards, I like to speculate on what made that book special enough to be deserving of awards. After analyzing “When Zachery Beaver Came to Town,” I’m still not sure. The character that Kimberly Holt created in the morbidly obese 15-year-old, Zachery, is unique. The personal growth of Toby and Cal as they get to know Zachery and eventually help him, is encouraging. Perhaps the awards were given because so few modern young adult novels contain any reference to the Vietnam War. However, despite the fact that any of these aspects of the book had the potential to become greatness if further explored, I did not feel like this was a very interesting novel or that it deserved awards. tThere is a need for young adult novels that address the obesity issue. It has become common knowledge that obesity is a big problem among our youth. Yet, most movies and books are still written about the skinny pretty kids. This novel touched on that issue but it could have explored it better.tI enjoyed the way Toby and Cal eventually learn to see Zachery as a person with feelings and needs instead of just a spectacle. Everyone has a story, and Zachery’s story included a deceased mother, a non-supportive father, and a family history of obesity. It is good for adolescents to remember that everyone has a story and that they should not judge another person’s life story unless they have walked in their shoes.tThe biggest differences that I see between the Vietnam War and our more recent Iraq War are citizen support of soldiers and the draft. American citizens supported our soldiers during the Iraq War even if they did not agree with the war. American citizens somehow blamed our soldiers for the violence in Vietnam, even going as far a to spit on them if given the opportunity. This shameful practice was briefly mentioned in this novel but the level of citizen outrage was not properly described. Unlike the Iraq War, there was a draft during the Vietnam War, which meant that many of the soldiers did not choose to be involved in the war at all. I don’t remember this being mentioned in the novel at all. If the author is not going to make the uniqueness of the Vietnam War clear, why write about it at all? She could have written about a son, brother, friend that never came home from the Iraq War and she would have connected with more of the current young people. tThis novel was as slow as the Southern small town that it was set in. In today’s fast and exciting world, this novel does not have what it takes to keep most adolescents’ attention. I would not recommend it or give it an award.
—Tina Tallent
