Cody Harris 4

Setting  Brodie is a thirteen year old kid that lives in Riverton next to the black water river. At the beginning of summer his cousin Alex comes from L.A. because his parents are getting a nasty divorce. In mid summer Brodie finds his soon to be girlfriend making out with another boy on a rock they call the pedestal. Brodie decides that he well pull a prank on them and pull them into the pond. Only his plan backfires and they end up in the raging river. Alex decides that they should lie and say that they just fell in and Brodie tried to rescue them. They keep the lie up for about a month and then Brodie finally caves in and tells the truth to his dad and the police. That is when everybody in town started to hate him.

Characters CharacterPhysical Characteristics Adjectives of Personality Text Evidence /Explanation of Adjectives Character 11)Stealthy1) Serious when necessary. 1)He jumped into the raging black water river.. Brodie2) Athletic build2)funny2)He is the second best swimmer in town. 3) Skinny3)Open minded3)He would like to try new things. Character 21)Skinny1) Only thinks about himself. 1)Lies about what happened. Alex2)Scary looking2)City person2)Lives in L.A. and doesn’t get much Done. 3)Athletic build3)Scared of his parents. 3) Can run for a long distance.

Conflict  The conflict in the story is MANvSELF and MANvSOCIETY because Brodie confronts himself and asks if he should tell the truth or keep telling lies to everyone in town. He faces society because of all the pressure he is getting from the news cast and the press he is about to break under pressure.

Summary of Plot  Brodie planned to ruin Pauline and Otis time together by pushing them into the pond, but his planned backfired and instead they fell into the raging river. Brodie attempts to save them but in the end fails to do so. His cousin Alex lies to everybody about how everything happened.

Theme  “you have to tell the truth.” says Hannah to Brodie.  “Brodie finds a towel and a flip flop and a note on his door that says the truth.”  “The cops tell everyone that they found Otis body trapped in some weeds next to the riverbank.”  “The cop tells Brodie that you have to tell me exactly everything that happened.”

Point of View The point of view in this story is in first person. If the story was not told in first person you would have not of known the stress Brodie was going through. You read the book through Brodie’s mind and eyes

Symbolism  The one time there was symbolism in this book was when the town floated a boat full of flowers out into the pond to show that they loved those children and wished they hadn’t died.

Recommendation  This book is worth reading because it teaches you a lesson about lying. A child in the book lied and then the town loved him until he told the truth.

Website links to pictures 