Susie Wilde (Children's Literature)
Newly moved and angry Brent attends a party. It turns out he is dressed wrong and not clued into the planned activity. His fury escalates when he drinks, is rejected by a girl, teased and comes to blows with the host. Enraged and humiliated, Brent leaves and becomes lost in a maze of expressways. He decides suicide is the way out of all his problems. Only he doesn't kill himself but Lea, an eighteen-year old caring, honor student. Her parents ask Brent to create four whirligigs resembling Lea and place them in four corners of the United States. The sorrowful Brent, armed with a used instruction book, supplies and a bus pass, establishes handmade whirligigs in Maine, Florida, Washington and San Diego. Each has a positive effect on another person, but no one is changed more than Brent who sees life like a whirligig, "its myriad parts invisibly linked, the hidden crankshafts and connecting rods carrying motion across the globe and over the centuries." He understands also how Lea's death has saved him from blackness and set his life in motion, a "motion that he was now transferring to others." This has much to say about apologies, and discovering that saying "I'm sorry" is as important to the offending party as the injured. 1998, Henry Holt, $16.95. Ages 10 up.

Sharon Salluzzo (Children's Literature)
When newcomer Brent realizes that he is a misfit at the party, his drunken anger gets the best of him. While driving toward home he hears a voice in his head telling him to end his life. Brent survives the wreck but kills a high school senior honor student, Lea Zamora. Brent meets Lea's mother and agrees to her peculiar request: to go to the four corners of the United States and build whirligigs "of a girl that looks like Lea." Traveling alone by bus, Brent learns to atone for his actions, and through his creations affects the lives of others in ways he will never know. This is a beautiful story of atonement, self-respect, learning to live with the consequences of one's actions, and discovering that what we do can have a profound influence on others. Fleischman skillfully intertwines the plot threads into one finely crafted novel. 1998, Henry Holt, $16.95. Ages 12 up.

CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices, 1998)
We can never know all the consequences of our acts. They reach into places we can't see. And into the future, where no one can." In a drunken moment of despair and self-pity, 16-year-old Brent tries to kill himself by crashing his car. He survives, but a young woman driving an oncoming car is killed. It is the young woman's mother who offers him a chance for some sort of redemption from his guilt and self-loathing. In her own grief, she is seeking to keep some part of her daughter Lea's caring spirit alive. She shows Brent a picture of a whirligig--Lea's favorite toy as a child. Put one up in the four corners of the United States, she tells Brent. Paint them in the image of Lea and write her name on each one, so that in some way she will continue to spread happiness. Brent travels across the country by bus to complete the task, his unskilled work improving with each new creation. He relies on help from the past in the carefully written notes left by another builder in the old book on whirligigs he bought. But Brent, too, is leaving notes for the future--messages that are open to interpretation in the form of each of the whirligigs he builds. Fleischman intersperses his narrative of Brent's journey with chapters that step into other people's lives at some future time, chronicling how each of the whirligigs has been viewed by someone whose life it has touched. In this way, the narrative as a whole moves back and forth through time like the blades of a whirligig spinning with the wind. But the story always returns to Brent's own journey as he gradually learns to trust both himself and others, and in doing so discovers his own strength and kindness, and the unending connections that give life its meaning. CCBC categories: Fiction for Teenagers. 1998, Holt, 133 pages, $16.95. Ages 13 and older.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1998)
At once serious and playful, this tale of a teenager's penitential journey to four comers of the country can be read on several levels. While attempting to kill himself on the highway after a humiliating social failure, Brent causes a fatal accident for another motorist, Lea Zamora. His sentence requires a personal act of atonement, if the victim's family so desires; Lea's mother hands him a bus pass and tells him to place pictorial whirligigs in Maine, Florida, Washington, and California as monuments to her daughter's ability to make people smile. Brent sets out willingly, armed with plywood, new tools, and an old construction manual. Characteristically of Fleischman (Seedfolks, 1997, etc.), the narrative structure is unconventional: Among the chapters in which Brent constructs and places the contraptions are independent short stories that feature the whirligigs, playing significant roles in the lives of others. Brent encounters a variety of travelers and new thoughts on the road, and by the end has lost much of the sense of isolation that made his earlier aspirations to be one of the in-crowd so important. The economy of language and sustained intensity of feeling are as strongly reminiscent of Cynthia Rylant's Missing May (1992) as are the wind toys and, at least in part, the theme, but Fleischman's cast and mood are more varied, sometimes even comic, and it's Brent's long physical journey, paralleled by his inner one, that teaches him to look at the world and himself with new eyes. 1998, Henry Holt, $16.95. © 1998 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Paula Rohrlick (KLIATT Review, July 1998 (Vol. 32, No. 4))
Like ripples in a pond, acts have consequences that we often can't foresee. This imaginative and satisfying novel illustrates this through the story of 16-year-old Brent Bishop. Trying to get in with a popular crowd, he gets humiliated at a party and drives drunkenly down a highway, looking to kill himself. Instead he accidentally takes the life of an 18-year-old girl, and in restitution her mother makes an odd request of Brent: he is to make four whirligigs with the girl's likeness on them and set them up in the four corners of the U.S.-- Washington, California, Florida, and Maine. Relieved to get away, Brent sets out on his strange mission by bus. Though Brent doesn't know it, his creations change the lives of others, and their stories alternate with his travels. Through the whirligigs, a teenage girl in Maine meets the boy she loves; a Puerto Rican street-sweeper in Miami becomes reconciled to his chaotic family; the mother of a boy in Washington learns to let him play as well as work; and a girl in San Diego understands how her grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, can focus on the good in life. Brent's trip helps him to focus on the good in life, too, as his travels and his work making the whirligigs let him come to terms with his guilt and depression. Brent's growth is hard-won and believably portrayed, and the stories interwoven with his mission are absorbing and affecting. This is a good book for class discussion; there's much to savor and ponder here, as Fleischman imparts important messages gracefully. KLIATT Codes: JS*--Exceptional book, recommended for junior and senior high school students. 1998, Henry Holt, 134p. 97-24429, $16.95. Ages 13 to 18.

Janice M. Del Negro (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, June 1998 (Vol. 51, No. 10))
Seventeen-year-old desperate-to-be-cool Brent Bishop loses his bid for a place with the popular crowd and storms out of a party much the worse for alcohol. Drunk behind the wheel of his car, he attempts suicide, only to survive the car crash that ends the life of a much-loved young woman named Lea Zamora. Brent and his parents face Lea’s mother in the office of a mediator in order to hear her request for restitution: she wants Brent to build four whirligigs, wind toys, with Lea’s face in the design, and set them up somewhere in Washington, California, Florida, and Maine. His parents react with dismay, but Brent is grateful for a chance to expiate his guilt, and he accepts a how-to book and a Greyhound bus pass from the grieving mother. With the design and construction of each whirligig Brent becomes more skilled, more knowledgeable about his materials and himself. Depictions of the people the whirligigs affect are more like fast Polaroids than studied portraits, and characterization is slight; still, as in Seedfolks (BCCB 7/97), Fleischman has a way of getting inside the heads of even his most thinly realized characters, imparting a humanity that is both recognizable and touching. The structure of the novel is somewhat contrived (the novel’s nine chapters are divided into five chapters about Brent’s travels and travails and four about the impact of the four whirligigs on individuals in four states), but it stands the strain by not falling into the maudlin even as Brent’s self-absorption receives a mortal blow by his acceptance of responsibility for the death of Lea. Granted, Brent’s bus ride across America is a thinly disguised allegory of his journey to himself, but Fleischman’s easy style makes the ride smooth. Review Code: Ad -- Additional book of acceptable quality for collections needing more material in the area. (c) Copyright 1998, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 1998, Holt, 133p, $16.95. Grades 7-12.

N. Kennedy (The Five Owls, November/December 1998 (Vol. 13, No. 2))
We never know all of the consequences of our acts. They reach into places we can't see. And into the future, where no one can. Whirligig Author Paul Fleischman's portrayal of a suicidal teen acknowledges and celebrates the inherent struggle of adolescence. Fleischman fairly represents not only the joyous and exciting moments of adolescence--but the times of indecision, sarcasm, hostility and hate, including times of self-neglect and self-disrespect. Fleischman has created the Chicago teen Brent Bishop, son of a successful car-rental company pseudo-executive father, as his avenue to develop an adolescent's tale of self-discovery. As the new student at yet another school, Brent finds himself concerned more with his social status than his grade point average or personal growth toward individuality. He has tried time and again to become the most popular and most noticed kid in school. He feels, however, that each time he has made a significant social impression, he's had to move to another city and begin as the new kid. Now Brent has new friends to make but is indecisive about each person he meets, because they may not be as socially qualified as he first perceives. He has new girls to meet and relationships to build but doesn't know if he will have enough time in whatever new city he finds himself to build them. Brent Bishop seems to move from town to town, from friendship to friendship, without a home, without a foundation--either social or religious--that he can hold onto and believe in. He has been denied what he thinks should be the rights of an adolescent. And girls--Brent is young and in love and wants to show his love, but time and again is turned away. During a party at the home of a wealthy schoolmate's friend, Brent finally finds the courage to introduce himself to the girl of his most recent attraction. She, like the others, declines his invitation, begging him to leave her alone. Brent hears everyone at the party listening to her dismissal of his advances, and he turns to leave--to drive home. Ignorantly denying his intoxication, he is not yet conscious of the fact that he will attempt suicide. On the freeway, driving well above the posted speed limit, Brent sees the cement foundation of an upcoming bridge and veers in its direction. Believing that in death he won't need to face the social, academic, and family-oriented failure that his life has become, Brent intentionally aims for the foundation and his death--but unintentionally takes the life of a young and anonymous girl. His suicide attempt turns into murder. Time and legal proceedings pass, and Brent's penance as recommended by the mother of the murdered girl, is for him to build four whirligigs in the four corners of the United States, with the girl's likeness and name on them. Against the urging of his parents, Brent accepts the strange penance and perceives it as a chance for rebirth. He considers his journey on the Greyhound bus "the afterlife" and uses his free pass as a means to get away from his parents, his schoolmates, his neighborhood--none of which, he felt, had ever accepted him. Brent's journey eventually leads him to self-awareness and the discovery of his own importance and goodness. Through well-placed subplots that depict the impact of his presence on others, Fleischman thoughtfully allows the reader to be part of Brent's journey. Intelligent and moving, Whirligig is respectfully in tune with the difficulties of adolescent growth. Brent struggles through the consequences of poor decisions and, in the process grows into self-fulfillment. Fleischman takes great care in presenting the positive outcomes of life's situations and shows that repercussions--both good and bad--can "go into the future, where no one can." 1998, Henry Holt, 8-1/2 x 5-5/8, 160 pages, $16.95. Ages 11 to 14.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Fall 1998)
Humiliated at a party, Brent tries to commit suicide while driving home but instead kills a seventeen-year-old girl. Desperate to atone, Brent agrees to the victim's mother's request that he build four whirligigs and set them up in the four corners of the United States as monuments to her daughter. In this intricately structured novel, Fleischman skillfully connects the stories of several people to the evolution of his main character. Category: Fiction. 1998, Holt, 133pp. Ages 12 to 18. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.

Maura Bresnahan (VOYA, June 1998 (Vol. 21, No. 2))
As he nears his seventeenth birthday, Brent decides he is so tired of trying to fit in in a world where he does not belong that his only option is suicide. Driving home alone from a high school party, he plans to end his life while behind the wheel. A life is taken, but not Brent's. His reckless actions kill eighteen-year-old Lea Zamora, a soon-to-be college freshman, loving daughter, and talented musician with a beautiful smile and a love for life. Sentenced to probation and community service, Brent meets Lea's mother as part of his restitution. When Mrs. Zamora requests Brent build and place whirligigs in the four corners of the United States as a way of spreading Lea's happiness, he readily agrees. Brent believes his summer journey cross-country by bus will be an escape from the guilt he carries; from his parents who do not understand him; and from a life that holds little meaning. As he travels and builds his memorials to Lea, Brent slowly accepts that while he cannot bring Lea back, her spirit lives on in the whirligigs. He learns to appreciate the stars in the night sky, develops the discipline required to learn a musical instrument, and finds a place for himself in a world of his choosing, not his parents'. Brent's whirligigs enrich the lives of four diverse people whose stories Fleischman tells in chapters that are interspersed with Brent's (less sophisticated readers might have trouble adjusting to the transitions). A young girl in Maine who is immersed in studying science; a Korean-American boy in suburban Seattle who dreams of playing baseball while his adoptive mother dreams he will be a concert violinist; a Puerto Rican-born street sweeper in Miami; and a teenager in San Diego coping with her grandmother's mortality all experience epiphanies connected to Lea's whirligigs. Through the diversity of these people who never meet Brent but are somehow forever changed by his work, Fleischman proves his point: "the world itself was a whirligig, its myriad parts invisibly linked." At this revelation, Brent's spiritual journey ends and begins again. He accepts that his life and Lea's intersected for a reason and appreciates that her death means he must now live a fuller, more meaningful one in her memory. This is a cathartic story of redemption. Brent, filled with self-doubt, guilt, and a host of worries, is a character today's adolescents will recognize and agonize with. Fleischman's writing is filled with beautiful imagery, no more so than in the twirling arms of his whirligigs that remind readers that sustaining the human spirit in an imperfect world requires reaching out to others. VOYA CODES: 5Q 4P M J S (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 1998, Henry Holt, 133p., $15.95. Ages 11 to 18.