Dirt Road Home (Alabama Moon Series #2)

by Watt Key

Overview

After his recapture at the end of Alabama Moon, gutsy fourteen-year-old Hal Mitchell is sentenced to live at Hellenweiler, an institution that is more like a jail than the boys’ home it’s supposed to be. Hal could walk out in just a few months if he keeps out of trouble. But in a place like Hellenweiler, the more he tries to avoid the gangs and their violence, the harder Hal’s fellow inmates try to make him fail.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312674359
Publisher:	Square Fish
Publication date:	12/06/2011
Series:	Alabama Moon Series , #2
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	49,597
Product dimensions:	5.22(w) x 7.68(h) x 0.66(d)
Lexile:	HL540L (what's this?)
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Albert Watkins Key, Jr., publishing under the name Watt Key, is an award-winning southern fiction author. He grew up and currently lives in southern Alabama with his wife and family. Watt spent much of his childhood hunting and fishing the forests of Alabama, which inspired his debut novel, Alabama Moon, published to national acclaim in 2006. Alabama Moon won the 2007 E. B. White Read-Aloud Award and has been translated in seven languages. Key’s second novel, Dirt Road Home, was published in 2010.

Reading Group Guide

Discussion Questions

1. Do you think Hal deserves to be at the Hellenweiler Boys’ Home? Why?

2. Do you agree with Hal’s choice to stay unassociated with the Ministers

and the Hounds? Is this a good decision? Why? If you were Hal, would

you make the same decision?

3. Who do you think is a better leader, Paco or Jack? Who do you think is

stronger? Why?

4. Why do both gangs leave Caboose alone? Why does Caboose never say

anything?

5. How did Hal’s experiences with Moon Blake change Hal’s personality?

6. Why do the boys at Hellenweiler lie about how they got there?

7. Why did Paco take a beating from Jack? What was he trying to achieve?

8. How was Paco different before he came to Hellenweiler? Why did he

change?

9. Have you ever gotten in trouble with the law? Did the experience change

you?

10. Did you like the ending of the book? Do you think that Caboose will still

seek revenge from the guards?

Editorial Reviews

Key nicely paces his tale, steadily building the tension. . . . There’s more than enough action to keep the fidgitiest adolescent boy glued to the page here.”—Mobile Press-Register

 

“With authentic characters and a candid first-person narrative, Key’s story offers a disturbing appraisal of life in a juvenile facility, and a riveting battle for justice.”—Publishers Weekly

“The short chapters, quick pacing, and plentiful dialogue make Key’s impressive second effort an especially appealing choice for reluctant boy readers.”—The Horn Book

“A gripping tale of a 14-year-old caught in a justice system that is not about justice at all.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Hal quickly learns that the boys who want to fight him aren’t his real challenge—it’s the guards who allow it to happen.”—Birmingham Magazine

“. . . Hal’s efforts to contain his rage and navigate brawls keep the atmosphere tense and pacing fleet. . . . for comeuppance it doesn’t get much more satisfying.”—Booklist

From the Publisher

This gritty sequel to Key's Alabama Moon tells what happens to Moon's friend Hal after their escape from the Pinson Boys' Home. The book begins with 14-year-old Hal being sent to the Hellenweiler Boys' Home in Tuscaloosa, a "high-security jailhouse to lock down eighty bad boys." Desperate to return to his father and to reunite with his girlfriend, Hal vows to "play it cool." It's hard to avoid trouble, however, when guards do nothing to prevent fights and two warring gangs pressure Hal to choose a side. As he becomes aware of underlying corruption in the system, preventing any chance for release, Hal has to decide between using brute force or his wits to survive. Readers will feel Hal's fear and temptation to give up, but unlike the boys' home itself, the novel is not without hope, and Hal hatches a plan to make the institutional corruption known. With authentic characters and a candid first-person narrative, Key's story offers a disturbing appraisal of life in a juvenile facility, and a riveting battle for justice. Ages 10-14. (July)

Publishers Weekly

This companion novel to Key's well-acclaimed Alabama Moon (Farrar Straus Giroux/Macmillan, 2006/VOYA October 2006) is an engrossing tale of a teen's struggle to endure in a juvenile detention center. When fourteen-year-old Hal Mitchell arrives at Hellenweiller Boys' Home, he is prepared to do his time and get out. After already escaping from another state residence, he is clear on what it takes to function as a "ward of the state" and has made a pact with his father to stay out of trouble until he is able to get out. This is nearly impossible in a place where violence and revenge are the norm. When he arrives, Hal is recruited by two rival gangs, the Death Row Ministers and the Hell Hounds, but refuses to get involved in either one. In a place where authority is a matter of perspective, it is nearly impossible to stay out of trouble. He soon realizes that the guards and the head of security are the real enemy. Hal is a noble character, and readers will certainly like him. Key does a fabulous job of keeping his readers involved in the story and vested in the characters. Even reluctant readers will most likely find this one hard to put down. Controversial elements include violent scenes and references to juvenile alcohol use. Reviewer: Victoria Vogel

VOYA - Victoria Vogel

Key's story of fourteen-year old Hal Mitchell at Hellenweiler School for Boys, as a companion novel to Alabama Moon, broaches a variety of topics in this easy-to-read and hard to put down novel. More appropriate for a slightly more mature reader, Dirt Road Home uses bold imagery, incorporating language and concepts related to gangs, violence, and life in an institution. Hal will be free to live his life—clean and right, as he affirms—if he can avoid trouble during his stay at Hellenweiler. However, after witnessing the injustices that surround him and after denying acceptance into the two gangs (Ministers and Hounds) at the boys' school, Hal begins to make alliances so that he can learn more of the inner workings of the facility. Hal learns that perhaps the trouble is not just the boys—that perhaps the trouble is in the corruptness of the facility's staff as they go out of their way to cover up and falsify incident reports that go to the state. Hal goes out on a limb to expose the true enemies of the school, which results in exposure of the administration on a grand scale. Reviewer: K. Meghan Robertson

Children's Literature - K. Meghan Robertson

Gr 5–8—A companion to the award-winning Alabama Moon (Farrar, 2006), this novel stands on its own. The book opens with lots of action, as 14-year-old Hal is led in chains to the Hellenweiler Boys' Home, a lockdown facility in Tuscaloosa where he is to serve out his sentence. He and his father have an agreement: Daddy is going to stop drinking and Hal is going to keep a clean slate while incarcerated. However, the teen soon discovers that this is almost impossible; he is immediately pressured to "claim" for one of two gangs, with both choices guaranteed to bring him trouble. Hal chooses the unthinkable—to join neither. The tension, positioning, threats, and shifting alliances among the boys are believable and will hook readers. The teen's focus on his relationship with his father, as well as a new girlfriend, add moments of hope. The corruption of the supervising adults is also credible, and Hal's idea to reveal it creates a page-turning experience. Unfortunately, the staff's downfall is a little too easily accomplished and rings false, especially after all the gritty realism that comes before it. A happy ending with Daddy, Hal, and Caboose (another loner from the facility) neatly wraps up the story, putting this book squarely in the camp for younger readers with a tougher edge.—Amy Cheney, Alameda County Library, Oakland, CA

School Library Journal