Dancing Carl

Dancing Carl , Gary Paulsen's first novel, was a ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a Notable Children's Trade Book for the Language Arts. In the winter, life in McKinley, Minnesota, revolves around the rinks, where kids play hockey and grown-ups skate to scratchy phonograph records. Then, the year Marsh and his best friend, Willy, are twelve, Carl appears at the rink, wearing a battered, old leather flight jacket and doing a strange dance that is both beautiful and disturbing to watch. It is Marsh and Willy who discover the terrible secret behind Carl's dance, a secret that threatens to destroy him. But a small miracle occurs, and Carl's dance becomes a fragile and tentative expression of hope and the healing power of love.

In the winter, life in McKinley, Minnesota, revolves around the rinks, where kids play hockey and grown-ups skate to scratchy phonograph records. Then, the year Marsh and his best friend, Willy, are twelve, Carl appears at the rink, wearing a battered, old leather flight jacket and doing a strange dance that is both beautiful and disturbing to watch.

It is Marsh and Willy who discover the terrible secret behind Carl's dance, a secret that threatens to destroy him. But a small miracle occurs, and Carl's dance becomes a fragile and tentative expression of hope and the healing power of love.

As winter progresses, the strange man in the worn flight jacket dances frequently on the ice of the rink, expressing more with his movements than most people do with words.

From three-time Newbery Honor author Gary Paulsen comes a moving middle grade novel about four strangers fighting for the life they want. In the winter, life in McKinley, Minnesota, revolves around the rinks, where kids play hockey and grown-ups skate to scratchy phonograph records. Then, the year Marsh and his best friend, Willy, are twelve, Carl appears at the rink, wearing a battered, old leather flight jacket and doing a strange dance that is both beautiful and disturbing to watch. It is Marsh and Willy who discover the terrible secret behind Carls dance, a secret that threatens to destroy him. But a small miracle occurs, and Carls dance becomes a fragile and tentative expression of hope and the healing power of love. As winter progresses, the strange man in the worn flight jacket dances frequently on the ice of the rink, expressing more with his movements than most people do with words, and twelve-year-olds Marsh and Willy try to learn his secret Presents three classic novels, including "Hatchet," as well as the nonfiction work "Woodsong" in which Paulsen recounts some of the life experiences that shaped his fiction In the summer, in McKinley, Minnesota, when you are twelve there is so much to do that almost none of it gets done except fishing.