Trouble - Library Edition

Elizabeth Ward

There is nice writing here. There are also issues aplenty, thoughtfully addressed: character, judgment, prejudice, fortitude. There's humor, too, channeled through Henry's wisecracking—and wise—friend Sanborn…an honorable effort.
—The Washington Post

Publishers Weekly

Tautly constructed, metaphorically rich, emotionally gripping and seductively told,Schmidt's (The Wednesday Wars) novel opens in the 300-year-old ancestral home of Henry Smith, whose father has raised him to believe that "if you build your house far enough away from Trouble, then Trouble will never find you." With such an opening, it is inevitable that Trouble does find the aristocratic Smiths: Henry's older brother, Franklin, is critically injured by a truck. A Cambodian refugee named Chay, who attends the same school as Franklin, acknowledges responsibility, but over the course of Chay's trial it occurs, to Henry at least, that it was Franklin who sought Trouble: the racism he directed toward Chay specifically and Cambodian immigrants generally has been so widely shared in the community that no one challenged it. Twin sequences of events plunge the Smiths and Chay into further tragedy, also revealing the ravages of Chay's childhood under the Khmer Rouge. At the same time, a storm exposes a charred slave ship long buried on the Smiths' private beach: it emerges that their house has been close to Trouble all along. For all the fine crafting, the novel takes a disturbingly broad-brush approach to racism. Characters are either thuggish or willfully blind or saintly, easily pegged on a moral scale-and therefore untrue to life. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

VOYA

AGERANGE: Ages 12 to 18.

Mr. Smith always told his children they could stay out of Trouble (with a capital T) through their actions, which leaves Henry Smith wondering who is to blame when his older brother, Franklin, is hit and killed one night while jogging along the highway. The alleged driver, Chay Chouan, and his family are immigrants from Cambodia, which adds fuel to a fire of sentiment against new arrivals to coastal Massachusetts. Everything is not as it seems, however, and Henry will slowly discover that he and Chay are more profoundly entangled than he could have possibly suspected. As deeper and deeper trouble engulfs the Smiths and Chouans, Henry and Chay become unlikely companions on a quest to climb Mount Katahdin. In the process they will learn the truth about their own and each other's pasts. Schmidt has previously won Newbery and Printz Honor awards for his books, and this novel is of equal literary merit. The plot is engaging and involves issues of adolescence, but it will easily work in the classroom for analyzing literary text. Many social issues currently in play in the United States are central to the story, such as immigration in a faltering economy, making it an excellent springboard for class discussion of current events. Although the worst violence is not graphically described, the tragedy of Franklin's death and the atrocities committed against Chay's family during the war in Cambodia may be a little much for younger teens, making the book most appropriate for readers fourteen and older. Reviewer: James Blasingame
April 2008 (Vol. 31, No. 1)

KLIATT

AGERANGE: Ages 12 to 18.

Henry Smith thought Trouble would never find him and his family, as they snuggled into their New England coastal mansion. Somehow, unexpectedly, Trouble creeps into his life. One minute Henry is enjoying his family and the next minute his family is ripped apart by the devastating news that Henry’s older brother was hit by a car; he dies. The grief is compounded by Henry’s anger at his brother’s last words, an implied challenge when he told Henry that Henry would never make it up Mt. Katahdin, the cliff-like mountain they were to climb together that summer. Frustration fuels Henry to take his dog and his best friend and hitchhike to Maine. The story twists and turns as these three travelers encounter wild adventures on their way to the mountain. A friendship and level of trust flower among unexpected people, and everyone is left wanting to know what really happened on the day that Trouble found Henry’s family. Written by a 2008 Newbery Honor Book author, this story addresses what it means to be human, to struggle with racist feelings towards others and still be able to work towards responsibility and reconciliation. The protagonist is a young teen, but the complex history and rich attention to detail make this book inviting to older readers as well. Reviewer: Ashleigh Larsen
March 2008 (Vol. 42, No.2)

Children's Literature - Naomi Williamson

Trouble begins for Henry Smith even as he remembers his father's words, " If you build your house far enough away from Trouble, then Trouble will never find you." When Henry's brother Franklin is hit by a truck driven by a Cambodian student from their private school, Trouble comes for a visit and does not leave. What appears to be a relatively normal, wealthy, old school family in the small Massachusetts town quickly becomes dysfunctional when Franklin dies as a result of the accident. Henry decides to go ahead with a challenge his brother made to him—to climb Mt. Katahdin. With his best friend and his dog, he sets out hitchhiking to Maine. What transpires only serves to continue the conflict that Henry has felt after Franklin was hit and later died. Henry learns that you have to stand up to Trouble if you want to fight it. An added twist with Henry's sister Louisa only increases the hold Trouble has on the family. Schmidt, winner of a Newbery Honor, has written another story with characters comparable to Lizzie Bright, Turner Buckminster, and Holling Hollingwood in both strength and resiliency. Reviewer: Naomi Williamson

School Library Journal

Gr 7-10

Gary D. Schmidt's novel (Clarion, 2008) presents the story of an upper class New England family's privileged life colliding with violent prejudices against immigrant Cambodians after a tragic accident. Franklin is hit and killed by a pickup truck driven by Chay, a Cambodian student in Franklin's prep school. Chay is not sent to jail, and racial tensions are sparked. Franklin and his younger brother, Henry, had planned to climb Mt. Katahdin in Maine. Henry is determined to make the climb, and one morning the boy, his best friend, and a stray dog decide to hitchhike to the mountain and are picked up by Chay. Prejudice takes on a different face entirely as Chay's personal story develops, entwined with all three boys' growing understanding of their families, their town, and what really happened the night of the accident. Jason Culp's accomplished reading moves smoothly from a quiet and neutral narration to vivid vocal depictions of each character, complete with seamless accents. This gripping, adventure-filled journey of self discovery and exploration of themes such as discrimination and forgiveness will appeal to middle and high school students.-Jane P. Fenn, Corning-Painted Post West High School, NY

Kirkus Reviews

One of children's literature's prose masters presents a typically deliberate tale of moral awakening. Henry Smith, younger son of a well-to-do Massachusetts family, finds his secure world rocked to its foundations when his jogging brother is critically injured by a pickup truck driven by a young Cambodian immigrant. His family falls apart. Three things keep Henry, too, from crumbling completely: his hatred for the boy who drove the truck, his love for the stray Black Dog he brings home and his determination to climb Maine's Mt. Katahdin, the mountain his brother teased him he'd never summit. The leisurely development of plot and characters allows the latter full emotional complexity and nuances the former with the layers of relationships that, willy-nilly, bind humanity together. One subplot too many-the wreck of a slaver appears on the Smiths' beach-results in a little too much Significant Musing and a wild coincidence that threatens the credibility of the whole. It's a measure of Schmidt's control in other realms that this still stands as a deeply moving and pleasurable read. (Fiction. 12-16)