Words of Stone

by Kevin Henkes

Book Overview

A beautifully written, rich, and tender novel." --The Horn Book (starred review)

Blaze Werla is having a routine summer. He spends his days alone, wandering around the hill next door, and his nights awake, avoiding the dreams that haunt him.

Then a message appears on the side of the hill and Blaze's predictable summer suddenly takes a turn toward the mysterious. By the time he meets outgoing Joselle Stark, Blaze finds...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688113567
• ISBN13: 9780688113568
• Release Date: September 1992
• Publisher: Greenwillow Books
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.6" x 9.1"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

Great Fourth Grade Novel

As a fourth grade teacher I give this book a high rating. It got the students to think about family and friendship. It touched on some issues that they will encounter as they get older.

Great Book

This was a great book. It was thoughtful, intriguing, and a bit sad. My 9 year old son read it for his 4th grade class, and I was fascinated myself. My son said that learning about these two characters (Blaze and Joselle) teaches you a lot about friendship.

Beautiful words of stone

This book was about a shy, fearful boy named Blaze. Ever since his mother died and he got burned in a small carnival fire, Blaze was never the same. Soon, disturbing messages written in stone appeared in his yard. They were about his mom and the fire. But he unknowingly made friends with the perpetrator, Joselle, who might as well be motherless herself. Will they ever reconcile after Blaze discovers Joselle's horrid secret? Check it out. The language is beautiful, and I could identify with Blaze because I'm quiet and fearful myself. Go get it right now!

Excellent model for teaching descriptive writing

Words of Stone is an outstanding read aloud for middle grade students. I have used this book in a Reader's workshop situation in which students have read books that feature characters in conflict. Henkes writes with awesome description, suspense and lets the reader really get to know the characters, which is what we want our young student authors to learn how to do! I loved this book when I read it and I continue to use it, and many other Kevin Henkes books when teaching 5th grade reading and writing. Hooray for a home-state author! A great book for modeling reading strategies and writing techniques, plus keeping the students hanging on the edge of the story.

Blaze found out about a message.

Gentle, imaginative Blaze has literally buried, beneath stones he has set in a circle, the several imaginary friends who have failed to help him overcome fears dating back years, to his mother's death. He can't swim and is apprehensive of dogs; he's not ready to confide in his nice dad or to paint on the canvas Dad has provided. And he's never managed to get back on the Ferris wheel he rode with his mother just before she died. Meanwhile, Joselle ironically calls her self-centered mom ``The Beautiful Vicki.'' Off with yet another man, Vicki has dumped Joselle with her grandmother. A brash Gilly Hopkins of a child, Joselle nonetheless reaches out to her new neighbor, and the two form a tentative friendship that is helping both until Blaze catches Joselle in a lie--a self-protective habit his example has been inspiring her to overcome--and bitterly rejects her. Still, each has helped move the other toward healthy self-determination; and, in a remarkable conclusion that gathers the story's images and themes together in a few graceful paragraphs, their mutual betrayal is succeeded by a believable reconciliation.