Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman | Teen Ink

Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman

May 20, 2015
By Sungeun97 BRONZE, Shenzhen, Other
Sungeun97 BRONZE, Shenzhen, Other
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

          I read a nice book call "stuck in neutral”. This is about a boy who cannot move his muscle. His name is Shawn McDaniel and his father is a really famous writer. Shawn cannot move his body, talk, and he cannot see what he wants to see, because his eyes do not follow his brain. All of his friends and teachers think he is stupid, but actually he is very smart. He just can’t say the answer. This book has two main characters which are Shawn and his father. Since his father is a famous writer, he sometimes goes to TV show and he told a lie that he loves his son although he can’t move his body and he even wrote a poem about his son. However, Shawn’s father acted in the TV show, and he leaves his family, because he couldn’t stands to have a retarded kid. One day, Shawn found out a shocking news that his father is planning something really bad.

            I first read this book when I was in 8th grade, and I read it again, because I didn’t get the story when I first read it, so I couldn’t join the conversation about how great this book is. And I finally found out the meaning of the title “Stuck in Neutral”!! I think it’s because Shawn knew that his father is going to do something bad, but he has no other choice but to watch his father. Therefore he is being neutral. Also, the writer uses the word “stuck” for the title. I think it is because Shawn has to be a neutral. Although he might doesn’t wanted to be a neutral, he cannot do anything.

             I recommend this book to teenager and adult, but I don’t recommend it to young child, because they might think this book is too cruel. As reader read this book, I think they will ends up with having a similar question. “Should euthanasia be legal?” or “Is involuntary euthanasia necessary?”. This book makes reader to think about those questions. I watched youtube video to think about the answer, but as I watched the video, I think It is not an easy question to answer. I feel like there are lots of family who must think about this question seriously, for example, one of their family member is in Shawn’s situation. I think they had really hard time to decide the best answer. Therefore I shouldn’t say which one is good or bad, because even though each family has a different answer, they will have a same sad feeling.


Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.