Dancing Carl

by Gary Paulsen

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416939385
• ISBN13: 9781416939382
• Release Date: June 2007
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.2" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 10 to 14 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 9

Customer Reviews

Beautiful and Breathtaking

This book is one of those that will leave you breathless and dazed. I loved Carl and what he did. The tender love story part will melt even a hard heart. I loved the ice skating and cold atmosphere. That made the "rose" part even more beautiful.

Wonderful story

I love Gary Paulsen! This book is such a sweet and sad story. I think this is one of his best books ever.

Not just dancing....

A friend of mine, I'll call him Carl, SR, gave me this book to read. He said to me, "it's about the dance man, the dance...." So I read it. It is about more than just the dance. It is about love, deception, revenge....all centered around this guy, Dancing Carl. If you like the book "Dancing Carl" you may also like "Bedtime for BoBo", "The Tird Burglar", "What Color is Your Boxers", and "Scott M's Dance Tutorial".

Very good

I thought that Dancing Carl was an amazing book about a drunk named Carl who teaches Marsh, and his best friend Willy a lot about just over-all life. Carl also finds love in a woman and expresses it to her through an amazing dance. I suggest that you read this book, I did and I couldn't put it down. I think this was a great piece of writing just like all of Gary Paulsen's books. I think that it would take a pretty amazing mind to come up with a extrodinary plot like this one. You'll get to know carl, Willy, and Marsh just as if they were real.