The Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher

The Sledding Hill is about Eddie and Billy, best friends since elementary school. Then their lives take a turn for the worse when Eddie's father gets caught in a tire explosion and dies. Billy becomes depressed and kicks a pile of sheetrock. A piece hits his neck and breaks it. He dies, leaving Eddie more alone than ever. After the deaths of the two most important people in his life, Eddie's problems with school change. His mouth has always gotten him in trouble, but now he is mute. The only class he really likes is Really Modern Literature. When his class reads a book written by Chris Crutcher (the author of this book), the local reverend rallies to have the book banned from the school system because of bad language and controversial issues. Eddie, with the help of ghost Billy, must fight the reverend and figure out how to save his class and where he really belongs.

Although this book was about death, judgement, and censorship, I found it to be super humorous, and I personally loved how the author made himself a character in the novel. This is the second book I've read by Crutcher, and I definitely think his style of writing has a way of capturing the real life problems that many teens deal with and that many authors never write about. This really shows the breaking point between religion and school and how superficial judgements can ruin some people's lives. This book should be read by all the teachers and all the students in the world.