Whirligigs Book Report

Book Report
Whirligigs By: Paul Fleischman

After getting humiliated at a party, Brent drives away drunk and decides to kill himself. Letting go of the wheel on the highway, he ends up killing someone else. He killed a girl named Lea. Her mom asks Brent to put up 4 whirligigs, one in each corner of the US. Since they were Lea's favorite toys, they're meant to be monuments representing Lea's ability to make people happy. With wood, sum tools, a book on whirligigs, and a bus pass, Brent leaves on his trip to build the whirligigs.
In each of the 4 states, someone sees' one of the whirligigs and learns a lesson. After seeing the whirligig in Florida, a young Puerto Rican dad learns an important lesson. It's that people in a group can make good music or bad music. A young girl and her dying grandmother get a lot closer after seeing the whirligig in San Diego, California. In Washington, an adopted kid finds out that his life isn't that bad after all. And lastly, a girl and her best friend are reunited in Maine.
The biggest lessons learned are the ones that Brent learns on his trip to the four spots. All kinds of people contribute to Brent's change of attitude; one comment or story or facial expression at a time. Not only does he help himself, but also several people that he meets.
Some of the conflicts were the times when the kid was throwing rocks at his first whirligig, and when he left his whirligig book on the bus. Each conflict leads to a good ending though. The kid that was throwing rocks at it somehow gained a respect for the whirligig, after his mom told him off. Brent figured that the whirligig had helped him this far and now it was time for the book to help inspire someone else. So the whirligigs turned into a far bigger influence than anyone else could imagine.
The rising action of the story was when he would find friends and they would help him to realize certain things about himself. The biker that he met helped him get started on stars. One of the maids that he met on his trip had shown him kindness and through this, she taught him that u can always have a fresh start or second chance at life as long as you try hard enough. And the artist that he met at the ocean helped him learn that u shouldn't always judge a book by its cover, there might be more to someone than you think.
The turning point was when Brent realized that he could still have a chance to be a good person even after killing lea. After he realized that he just had fun and went into town and met some friends. None of the people he met in the town new him but they all accepted him right away. He danced with them and heard stories from people about there lives and finally got a ride home from one of the ladies that he had met.
And finally the resolution of his story was that his perspective on life had completely flipped around. He now saw that everything he had done was somehow connected and leas' death wasn't completely worthless. Leas' death had influenced a lot more people than her mom had ever thought and it had also helped Brent sort out the mess that was his life. And in the end he was completely devoted to living a happy life and helping others. I thought that the theme that the author was trying to introduce in this story was that even if you do one bad thing in your life you can still fix it. It doesn't mean that you should run out to the nearest car that you see and hit somebody doing sixty one the highway. But if u were to make a mistake then you are presented with the chance to redeem yourself whether it's in this life or your next you'll get that chance. And most likely when you get the chance it'll be a very convincing experience, your whole life will be effected along with other people that you meet. In conclusion, I would like to say that this book not only convinced me that there are chances out there to fix my life and get my priorities straightened out, but also chances for me to help others that are in similar situations. The best point that I could see in this book was that even without actually mentioning religion it's surprisingly spiritual and it links in with many different religions. So no matter what your beliefs, anyone can find something to relate to in this book. I saw no reason to think that there were any bad points in this book , all of them were good, better, or great points. I recommend that anyone that's even a little confused about there life right now and they hit a rough point in there relationship with a friend or loved one then they should read this book.
Even if you aren't having any trouble at all I still think you should read this book because if you read it now and you're having troubles later and there's no one to talk to then you at least have the memory of this book... I even think that it might be a good idea to spare some of your extra cash to purchase a copy of this book and pass it on to a friend so that others can have the chance to read it. If you know a friend that this book makes you think of then I think that it would be a great idea to get them to read it.