Kevin Henkes is a remarkable novelist. His descriptions of everyday life and the ostensibly mundane events that go on around us all the time elevate those little moments to become miniaturized works of art in the eye of the thoughtful reader. His feel for the nuances of the English language is extraordinary, but I think that what is even more key to his captivating descriptive prose than that is his unfailing attention to detail. He doesn't miss the importance of the little things about life that most people would never even notice, and his observations of the natural beauty all around us and in everything that happens lays a perfectly supportive foundation for the stories that he tells. Kevin Henkes is definitely one of the best. Following the death of his mother five years ago, ten-year-old Blaze Werla (one of my all-time favorite names for any character in American literature!) is still trying to overcome his fears and uncertainties about the world around him. His mother is gone, fallen victim to the dreadnought called cancer, but Blaze continues on with a life that really includes only his father and grandmother. Blaze's many fears are rooted mainly in experiences that he associates with bad things that have happened to himself, such as the burn scars around his ankles that he received due to an electrical malfunction one Fourth of July, or the final ride on the Ferris Wheel that he took with his mother shortly before she died. Being afraid of much of life is simply the state in which Blaze has become comfortable, and despite creating a new imaginary friend each year to help him overcome his phobias, it never works. Blaze may need some help of a different kind. Living just up on the next hill from Blaze is Joselle, who has come to stay with her grandmother while her own mother, The Beautiful Vicki, goes on vacation with her newest boyfriend. When Joselle has had time with her mother to herself in the past, everything has seemed really nice; however, with the addition of a boyfriend to their lives, it seems that Joselle is always the odd one out. So for as long as the current exclusionary vacation lasts, which has yet to be determined or announced by The Beautiful Vicki, Joselle will be living a couple of hours away from home with her grandmother. If Blaze still carries around scars―both psychological and physical―from the ordeals of his past, Joselle's are even more apparent, at least on an emotional level. She can't seem to help but act in ways that displease the people she's most commonly with, almost as if daring them to be like her mother and head for the hills. If Joselle is too much of a pain for her own mother, then how could anyone else be willing to put up with her? Maybe it would be best just to show them from the very beginning what they're getting into with her, knowing that their response to her behavior is sure to be the same as her mother's. Who wants a bunch of pretenders around who will leave eventually, anyway? When Joselle hears about the boy on the next hill whose mother died from cancer, an odd response bubbles up from within her as to how she wants to treat him. It's as if her instincts are telling her that if Blaze's problems are obviously way worse than her own, then somehow it will be as if the abandonment by her mother isn't all that big of a deal, and she'll be okay. Hardly knowing what she's doing or why, Joselle arranges a mysterious, anonymous sign that Blaze is sure to see, hoping that as she causes his misery to increase, it will alleviate her own. However, her continued plans to pick on the boy next door are derailed one day when she comes across Blaze outside, and begins talking to the orphaned boy. Joselle and Blaze have little in common as far as personality traits are concerned, but they seem to be to each other what they both most need. Whereas all of the imaginary friends that Blaze had created in the past never helped him to successfully confront his strongest fears, Joselle is a fount of indomitable spirit and bravery. She pets big dogs and talks to people she doesn't know and runs around soaking wet in the rain, and seems happy for it all. For once, Blaze has a friend willing to take him along on some adventures and show him that there's really nothing to be scared of, that the fun and humor of trying new things can be worth the risks required to do the trying. For Joselle, Blaze is present in a way that few others have been in her life, and he matches her interest in their friendship byte for byte. That is very important for Joselle, that someone actually cares about her just as much as she cares about them, and despite their differences, Blaze and Joselle seem almost like the perfect friends. Almost, that is; that annoying almost cannot be forgotten, as much as one might want to forget it. Because Joselle still has her flaw of instinctively pushing people away so that they won't do as her mother did and push Joselle away first, and she still has kept the secret of the trick that she pulled on Blaze back before she knew him. In similarly heartbreaking fashion to the "escape" plan that Gilly Hopkins impulsively engineers in The Great Gilly Hopkins, Joselle has a knack for doing everything she can to sabotage herself just when it looks as if the tide is at last turning in her favor, and many of us know exactly how it feels to walk in those lonely shoes. When the joy of a friendship newly found suddenly becomes mingled with the sharp sadness and bitter pangs of hurt of a relationship gone sour, all of the emotions collage into a big blur that's too mixed up to even sort out anymore. There's too much upset to just forget about it and move forward in the friendship, but there's also too much positive energy and emotion from the past to drop the person and act as if they were never even a part of your life. It hurts too much to go forward and it hurts too much to go back, and standing in one place isn't any more comfortable than the other two options. A broken friendship can feel as if the world has ended or that you wish it would, but when there's no easy fix for damage done, how can a resolution be reached? Long after finishing Words of Stone, readers will still feel the gentle sting of its prevalent emotions, will still connect with the core thoughts and feelings of both Blaze and Joselle and the friendship that they shared. As I've come to expect from Kevin Henkes as a writer of middle-grade novels, no easy solutions or unrealistic endings are offered in this book, so that what good does come about feels authentic and hard-won, true to life in a way that most novels are not. In a similar manner to that of his later book, Bird Lake Moon, Kevin Henkes grants his readers access to the rainbow of emotions experienced by two very different kids, and does not guard us from even the most intense of those emotions. The subjects of death and loss are always poignant for people, which I believe is why it is often so easy to remember books that deal with these topics. We remember with our emotions, and the most powerful emotions we have are usually tied in with personal loss. Like a silent, watchful bird, Words of Stone flies in and gently settles on those emotions for a brief span of one hundred fifty-two pages, revealing to us the happenings of a few weeks in the friendship of two kids in Wisconsin, before flying off again with no ultimate resolution to the story having been reached. The events of the narrative are so quiet that we could be living right next door to it all as it unfolded, and we still might miss out on it entirely if our eyes were not tuned in to truly see what's happening around us. No one is better at bringing real emotion out of a subtle story than Kevin Henkes, and Words of Stone is one of his best efforts in that regard. Filled with strong emotional truths and built upon superbly genuine characters, this book undoubtedly will have something important to say to every reader who opens it about the realities that touch all of our lives most deeply. I highly recommend the experience.
Words of Stone by Kevin Henkes is one of those "feel-good" books, those that you can read without feeling depressed or anything. Blaze Werla is quite an amusing kid what with his Noah's ark collection with only one of each animal where there should be two, his lost key collection. His lost key collection. I found it pretty adventurous when he said the reason for his lost key collection was so someday, he'd be able to find those doors or boxes which open to those keys. I guess, in essence, we all have our own lost key collection. Or more accurately, a "box with no key" collection. Subconsciously, we have all these thoughts, talents, memories, that are just hidden away in our mind, waiting for the right moment to be opened up. When the right time comes, they open up in our mind are exposed for the world to see. All in all, I give Words of Stone 4 of 5 stars with its wonderful capture of a child's thoughts and how the world seems to him at a very young age.
What do You think about Words Of Stone (2005)?
Words of StoneHenkes, KevinHis mother had died, he was burned when he tried to relive his last memory with her, and now he has secret messages written to him on the hill. He had tried to adapt, he made a new imaginary friend each year, and each year when he was unable to accomplish his goal he lost his friend. This year was not any different until the stones on the hill spelled his mother’s name. She was alone and lonely. She has always felt unloved by her mother, and a little bit of a trouble maker. She thought her best solution was to miss behave with the poor boy next door, then she would not upset her grandmother. The beginning of her adventure may lead to more than she would have expected.
—Theresa
Ten year old shy, red-haired Blaze Werla is hurting. Losing his mother to cancer has a profound impact on him. Added to the trama is the fact that he was badly burned and scared from a freak carnival accident.Each year he returns to the ferris wheel hoping he can have the courage to overcome his fears, and each year he fails.He has a strong support base of a loving father and grandmother, but still his imaginary friends are the ones to whom he turns.When Joselle Stark arrives in the neighborhood, his life is turned upside down and he struggles to share and develop a relationship with a real life friend.Abandoned by her near do well mother and dumped at her grandmother's house, Joselle is not exactly the best choice for a trustful friend.A liar, cheat and sneak by nature, Joselle's insecurities prompt her to harm anyone who tries to befriend her.While the description I wrote seems simplistic, actually, this book covers many complex issues. It is an ALA Notable Children's Book, a Publishers Weekly Best Book, one of the American Booksellers Association "Pick of the Lists" and a Library of Congress Children's Book of the Year.Highly recommended.
—Linda Lipko
