Swallowing Stones

by Joyce McDonald

Overview

You can’t change the past. . . . 
 
When Michael fires his new rifle into the air on his seventeenth birthday, he never imagines that the bullet will end up killing someone. But it does—and Michael’s world is changed forever. Desperate, he wrestles with his guilt and keeps silent as his life begins to fall apart.
 
When Jenna’s father is killed in a freak Fourth of July accident, she’s devastated. As she grieves, she tries to understand why she no longer feels comfortable with her boyfriend, Jason, and why a guy named Michael keeps appearing in her dreams. . . .
 
Swallowing Stones is a haunting novel about choices . . . and devastating consequences.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307816825
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	05/22/2012
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

Joyce McDonald is the author of several critically acclaimed young adult and middle-grade novels, including Shades of Simon Gray, an Edgar Allan Poe Award nominee and an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, and Devil on My Heels, nominated for five state awards. She is also a poet and is on the faculty of the low-residency MFA in writing program at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. She lives in Forks Township, Pennsylvania, with her husband. Visit Joyce at joycemcdonald.net and on Twitter at @JoyceMcDonald46.

Read an Excerpt

It was all true, then. The nightmare was real. Michael could no longer pretend, as he sometimes did, that there was a chance he hadn't fired that fatal shot. The bullet had come from somewhere in his neighborhood. The chances of someone else in such a small area shooting off a gun around noon on that same day were probably one in a million. He had spent weeks trying to get used to the idea that he had committed this hideous act. But always, somewhere, there had been hope. A bullet traveling a mile or more through the air could have come from as far away as the next town over. There had always been the outside chance that someone else had fired a gun into the air that Fourth of July afternoon. Now that chance no longer existed.

Reading Group Guide

1. Discuss how the accidental death of Charlie Ward may still be considered manslaughter.

2. Contrast Michael and Joe. Why does Michael maintain his friendship with Joe when everyone else has written him off? Discuss why Michael allows Joe to talk him into burying the rifle. How does Michael feel betrayed by Joe at different points in the novel?

3. Describe Amy Ruggerio’s role in the novel. How do people perceive her character? How is she hurt by these perceptions? Why does Joe smash her car? Discuss why Michael is so intrigued by Amy. Talk about Michael’s feelings when he learns that Amy had seen him with the rifle. Why has she kept this secret? How does she help Michael face the truth?

4. Both Jenna Ward and Amy Ruggerio harbor guilt for accidents they aren’t responsible for. Discuss how this guilt shapes Amy’s personality. What does Amy teach Jenna about grief? How does guilt create a bond between Jenna and her mother?

5. Discuss how the death of her father affects the relationship between Jenna and her boyfriend, Jason. Why is she so frightened by him? How does the accidental shooting influence Michael’s relationship with his girlfriend, Darcy? Why does he want her to be the one to end the relationship? Jenna wishes that relationships could be worked out like math problems, but knows there are just too many variables. Discuss the variables in the various relationships in the novel.

6. Cite evidence that Mr. MacKenzie might suspect that his son is involved in the shooting accident. Discuss why Mr. MacKenzie needs to believe that Joe is the one who fired the gun. Role-play a scene where Michael confesses the shooting to his father.

7. Why does Michael feel the need to watch Jenna Ward’s house? How might his actions be considered a form of stalking? Discuss why Michael goes to the ghost tree. How does his trip to the ghost tree take courage? Discuss the role of the ghost tree in Jenna’s healing process.

8. What are the stones that Michael MacKenzie must swallow? Discuss what stones he must swallow in the future. What lessons can teenagers learn from Michael’s unfortunate experiences?

Prepared by Pat Scales, Director of Library Services, the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, Greenville.

Editorial Reviews

The lives of four teenagers are drastically changed by a freak Fourth of July accident. "Readers will quickly become absorbed in this electrifying portrayal of fear and deception," said PW. Ages 12-up. (Aug.) r Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 7-UpMichael MacKenzie, 17, spends a tormented summer of guilt squeezing through the interstices of lies that he and his unsavory friend, Joe, concoct to hide the fact that a shot Michael fired from a rifle killed a man working on his roof over a mile away. In alternating chapters, Michael and the dead man's 15-year-old daughter, Jenna, creep inexorably toward their inevitable confrontation. This mesmerizing story largely derives its power from the respect McDonald demonstrates for these teens and their emotions, and her unwavering focus on their changing relationships in response to the tragedy. While on the surface the summer revolves around parties and the pool, readers are insinuated into the underlying culture that structures and controls their lives. Amy, who is scorned as a slut according to high school gossip, is revealed to be a Mary Magdalene-like character whose compassion and gentle caring contribute mightily to Michael's resolve to confess his culpability first to Jenna, then the police. Reminiscent of Michael Cadnum's work in the violent underpinnings of the plot and intensity of the characters' emotional lives, Swallowing Stones may also remind readers of Eve Bunting's Such Nice Kids (Houghton, 1990) and Robert Cormier's We All Fall Down (Delacorte, 1991). The almost magically surreal ending will leave many readers turning the page to find out what happens next.Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Jr. High School, Iowa City, IA

School Library Journal

The best day of Michael Mackenzie's life becomes the worst when the bullet he exuberantly fires into the air during his 17th birthday party comes down a mile away and kills a man. When he hears the story on the radio, the news hits him like a lightning bolt. Numbly following the advice of his best friend, Joe, he buries the rifle and tries, without much success, to get on with life. So does the victim's 15-year-old daughter, Jenna, who had been present when the bullet struck. Switching between Michael's point-of-view and Jenna's, McDonald (Comfort Creek, 1996) sends the two teenagers dancing slowly toward each other, using mutual acquaintances, chance meetings at parties and the community pool, and glimpses at a distance. Both go through parallel phases of denial, both are tortured by remorse, exhibit behavior changes, and experience strange dreams; both eventually find ways to ease their grief and guilt. When the police close in, Joe takes the blame, giving Michael the nerve to confess. In the final chapter, McDonald shifts to present tense and brings Michael and Jenna to a cathartic meeting under a huge sycamore said in local Lenape legend to be a place of healing—an elaborate and, considering the suburban setting and familiar contemporary characters, awkward graft in this deliberately paced but deeply felt drama.

Kirkus Reviews

"Readers will quickly become absorbed in this electrifying portrayal of fear and deception." –Publishers Weekly
 
“The unexpected consequences of celebratory gunfire are the topic of this well-written novel . . . [It] will appeal to a broad audience, and it is a great vehicle for discussions about guns, violence, and responsibility.” –VOYA  
 
“When 17-year-old Michael discovers that he has accidentally killed the father of a schoolmate, he wrestles with his own guilt until he can no longer keep his terrible secret. A compassionate story focusing on both the killer and the family left to grieve the loss of a father and husband.” –School Library Journal 
 
“Deliberately paced but deeply felt drama.” –Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

The moral dilemma McDonald presents immediately captures the listener’s attention: Michael MacKenzie, 17, does not come forward when he realizes he has accidentally killed 15-year-old Jenna Ward’s father. The tormented story is told in alternating chapters that focus on Michael or Jenna. While a mature voice is at first unexpected, Ed Sala quickly persuades the ensnared audience of his power to convey Michael’s fear and guilt, Jenna’s pain and confusion. Sala adeptly recounts the interplay between teen friendships and romance, as well as family relationships. The fluid narration even allows the supernatural some credibility in this book, which is filled with issues that absorb teens. R.N. © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

AUG/SEP 99 - AudioFile