About this title: An infant lies in a hospital in a coma, the victim of shaken baby syndrome. Her stepbrother, 13-year-old Branwell Zamborska, is being held in a juvenile detention center, the apparent abuser. But did Branwell really hurt baby Nikki? The family's rather seductive English au pair has implicated him--but is she speaking the truth? And when it comes ...
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Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Scholastic
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780439329576ISBN:0439329574
Description: New. Hardback w/o DJ as issued. This copy is nearly flawless! You are buying a Book in NEW condition with very light shelf wear to include very light edge and corner wear. Buy it Now! ! ! As always, thank you for buying this book from International Book Source, YOUR ONE source FOR ALL your BOOK related NEEDS. Please remember to CHOOSE carefully how QUICKLY you would like to RECEIVE this material FAST, or standard (on next page). Thanks again! ! ! ! read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780689867156ISBN:0689867158
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. (A156_5/9)Book is in good condition. Book showing light wear on edges. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 272 p. Audience: Children/juvenile; Young adult. read more
Description: Fair. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
"A great teen read about a 13 year old boy who helps his same age friend deal with a traumatic experience. "Silent to the Bone" has a running theme of lies and how silence is sometimes a lie, but also how you sometimes have to learn to be silent to get to the truth.
Technically speaking, the book is expertly written with a few choice passages, and not once is it ever overwritten. An excerpt I liked that captures the 'boys' and their friendship before the trauma:
Last year we were asked to write essays about freedom for a contest sponsored by our local rotary Club for the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. I wrote about the Freedom Riders who rode buses through the South in 1961 challenging segregated seating, rest rooms, and drinking fountains. There was a lot of stuff in the library about them. Branwell wrote about the Four Freedoms of World War II: freedoom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear. He wrote about each of those freedoms and how they were the basic reasons wars were fought. You could say that his essay was philosophical; mine was historical. His was long; mine was short. Mine was good; his was better. Mine won. When I won, my mother was proud and happy. My father was proud and happy. But no one was prouder of me or happier for me than Branwell, and I think he would not have been prouder or happier if he had won himself. And I don't know anyone anywhere who has a friend like that.
This is a 2-3 day read, sometimes a tough read as we don't want to believe these types of things can happen to 13 year olds. The book captures how boys deal with experiences that call on them to make mature decisions."
"Newbery award winning author Konigsburg states, "On Wednesday, November 25, at 2:43PM, Eastern Standard Time, Branwell Zamborska is struck dumb." It is here that readers are introduced to Branwell and his commitment to silence due to the fact that he is accused of harming his baby half sister Nikki who has been rushed to the hospital for a serious head injury.Unable to speak, Branwell's best friend Connor has been asked to visit him in the juvenile behavior center to see if he cannot only connect and possibly relieve him of his silence but also figure out what really happened the day that Nikki was harmed. Confident in the fact that Branwell would never harm a fly Connor makes it his mission to find a way to get to the truth because if Nikki's condition worsens serious consequences like manslaughter could be looming over his best friend - but how do you prove someone's innocence when they refuse to defend themselves and what is really holding Brandwell from telling the truth?
Konigsbury's novel is most definitely a detective story that will keep readers guessing but also asks some very important questions about the power of emotion, what it means to do the "right" thing, and the price people are willing to pay to "fit in." Readers that enjoy mysteries, internal struggles, and d"
"Connor's precocious friend Branwell suddenly stopped talking the day Bran's baby sister was injured and the babysitter blamed it on him. While little Nikki is in the hospital in a coma, Bran is sent to a juvenile detention center, and Connor visits him every day to try to develop ways to communicate so that they can get to the bottom of the mystery of what really happened that day.
The book is well-written and engaging, and I bought everything except for the overarching premise that a 13-year-old would suddenly be unable to talk - not just choose not to talk, but be unable to talk - after an incident of the type that occurs in the story. It seems the reader really has to suspend disbelief to accept that point while reading the book, and I spent the whole time expecting some kind of payoff in the end to allow the premise to work. And while the story does come together quite nicely in the end, I really didn't feel that the explanation helped me understand what happened to Bran's ability to speak."
""I don't think there is any feeling I like more than the one that someone is glad to see me."
--Connor Kane, "Silent to the Bone", P. 51
"I'm not sure that love and like aren't like cats and dogs: One can't grow up to be the other, but they can be taught to live under the same roof."
--Connor Kane, P. 74
My expectations for E.L. Konigsburg are always as high (or higher) than those I have for any other writer, and I have never known her to let me down. She did not disappoint in "Silent to the Bone". This is a different kind of mystery from the type that she has written previously (for example, "From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" or "The Dragon in the Ghetto Caper"). It has a distinctly young adult tone throughout, including some story elements that one most definitely would not expect to find in a children's book. The mystery held up very well the entire time, and E.L. Konigsburg hit the perfect notes while tightening the loop of suspense and moving the story faster and faster. Just when one figures that he has the answer pegged a new part is introduced, throwing all hypotheses out of whack. I found myself eager to see what would become of Branwell, and if he is truly guilty or if there is something more to the events that had occurred. Connor and his sister Margaret are determined to find out the truth, and will not stop until they have cleared Branwell of any false accusations.
"...first impressions-especially when everyone is watching and waiting, looking for signs-are hard to overcome."
--Margaret Rose Kane, "Silent to the Bone", P. 77
"I guess the only way to keep secret thoughts secret is not to say anything. Even to your lifelong best friend. If you don't speak at all, you don't have to worry about saying the wrong thing or having the right thing interpreted wrong."
--Connor Kane, P. 123
I think that "Silent to the Bone" is an excellent mystery story, and displays beautifully the diverse range of skills attributable to the legendary E.L. Konigsburg. The book also delivered what I'm really looking for from, her books, though: A novel so perceptive in its insights that I find myself gawking at the author's shockingly perceptive words at several various points in the text. I found the wisdom in "Silent to the Bone" to live up to this hopeful expectation wonderfully. I expected to really like this book, and I absolutely did. I almost wish that I could start over again at the beginning, without knowing anything about the plot. This is an excellent mystery and a great all-around story. SIAS: E.L. Konigsburg has done it again, putting her literary ducks in a row with amazing precision in this tour de force of a novel that redefines the standard for mystery writing.(four cliches, zero ands=4 stars ;-)
"Seeing other people's happiness always makes us feel cheated. "
--Margaret Rose Kane, P. 128
"Because way down deep they know that civilized people have to preserve rare birds."
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