Godless by Pete Hautman
	List Price:   $15.95 Unit Price:   $12.76 You Save:   $3.19 (20%) ISBN-10:   0689862784 ISBN-13:   9780689862786 Publisher:   Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Category:   Young Adults Pub. Date:   June 2004 Pages:   208 Format:   Hardcover Ages:   12 to 17 Grades:   7 to 12
Description/Notes
When sixteen-year-old Jason Bock and his friends create their own religion to worship the town's water tower, what started out as a joke begins to take on a power of its own. Chapter One In the beginning was the Ocean. And the Ocean was alone. Getting punched hard in the face is a singular experience. I highly recommend it to anyone who is a little too cocky, obnoxious, or insensitive. I also recommend it to people who think they're smart enough to avoid getting punched in the face by the likes of Henry Stagg.I was all those things the day Shin (real name: Peter Stephen Schinner) and I ran into Henry beneath the water tower. Henry was in the company of three lesser juvenile delinquents -- Mitch Cosmo, Marsh Andrews, and Bobby Something-or-Other. None of the four were particularly dangerous one-on-one, but in a pack? That was different. 'Hey, Henry, how's it going?' I said, striving for the sort of gruff heartiness I imagined he might respect.'Who's that? Is that Jay-boy and Schinner?' Henry squinted ferociously, his face scrunched into a hard little knot. He was wearing his usual getup: beat-up cowboy boots, jeans, and a black T-shirt. 'What're you guys doing here?''Just hangin' out,' I said. I wasn't about to tell Henry what we were really doing there. 'With each other? You guys must be desperate,' he said. Then he laughed. Bobby, Mitch, and Marsh all laughed too. The three stooges. Watching Henry as if he were the most fascinating thing they'd ever seen. I have to admit, Henry Stagg is an interesting specimen. He's only about five-foot-five and scrawny as a wild cat, but Henry has presence. He's twitchy, cobra-quick, and wound up so tight you just know something has to give. Henry has a history of sudden, unprovoked violence. That makes him both dangerous and exciting company. Fortunately -- or so I thought -- Henry and I had always gotten along just fine. That might have had something to do with the fact that I'm twice his size. Also, I figured I could outthink him any day of the week.'Could be worse,' I said. 'We could be hanging out with you guys.' I laughed to make sure he knew I was kidding, which I wasn't.Henry gave me a neutral scowl. 'So how come you're hangin' out here?''We're working on a science project,' Shin said in his Shinny voice. I groaned silently. I've gotten used to Shin's somewhat high-pitched, nasal voice, but it sends a guy like Henry right up the wall.'A science project?' Henry said, lifting his voice to a quavering falsetto. 'I thought fags were only interested in hairdressing and ballet.''I'm not a fag,' Shin said, his voice rising even higher. And I thought, Uh-oh.'Not a fag?' Henry piped, raising his arms to display his knobby hands hanging slack from the ends of his wrists.Shin, realizing that he was headed for trouble, crossed his arms over his notebook and went into his shell. More about that later. Henry capered in front of him, hopping from toe to toe, chanting, 'I'm not a fag I'm not a fag I'm not a fag...' Shin just stood frozen, staring at the ground. Henry dropped his arms and walked up to him and stuck his face a few inches from Shin's and shouted, 'Anybody home?' Shin said nothing. Henry's jaw muscles flexed and the veins on his neck throbbed. Shin didn't even blink. When he went into his shell you couldn't pry him out if you stuck a firecracker in his ear. Not until he was ready.Henry looked at me. 'What's the matter with him?''Nothing,' I said.'Hit him,' said Bobby. 'Give him one.'The stooges laughed as if Bobby had said something witty.Henry glared at them. Beneath it all, Henry had his rules. It wasn't his style to hit someone who was, say, unconscious. He wouldn't beat up a little kid, or an old lady -- at least not without just cause. And he could sense that Shin, in his shell, was just as helpless. 'Push him over,' Marsh suggested. 'See if he, like, tips.'Henry put his palm against Shin's chest and gave a little test shove. Shin teetered, but his internal gyroscope kept him erect. H As a joke, agnostic-going-on-atheist Jason Bock invents his own religion: theworship of his town's water tower. But what starts as a loose congregation ofJason's friend Shin and some classmates soon takes on a power of its own. ''I refuse to speak further of the Ten-legged One...but the more I think about it, the more I like it. Why mess around with Catholicism when you can have your own customized religion? All you need is a disciple or two...and a god.''Fed up with his parents' boring old religion, agnostic-going-on-atheist Jason Bock invents a new god -- the town's water tower. He recruits an unlikely group of worshippers: his snail-farming best friend, Shin, cute-as-a-button (whatever 'that' means) Magda Price, and the violent and unpredictable Henry Stagg. As their religion grows, it takes on a life of its own. While Jason struggles to keep the faith pure, Shin obsesses over writing their bible, and the explosive Henry schemes to make the new faith even more exciting -- and dangerous.When the Chutengodians hold their first ceremony high atop the dome of the water tower, things quickly go from merely dangerous to terrifying and deadly. Jason soon realizes that inventing a religion is a lot easier than controlling it, but control it he must, before his creation destroys both his friends and himself.Pete Hautman, author of 'Sweetblood' and 'Mr. Was,' has written a compelling novel about the power of religion on those who believe, and on those who don't.