Kindle Edition Amazon Author Bette A. Stevens Category:  Family Publisher: CreateSpace ISBN-10:  1481824449 Type: Fiction Pages: 26 Copyright: August 12, 2013 ISBN-13: 978148182446 Price: $2.99 (eBook) Nine-year-old Shawn Daniels is ready to embark on a Saturday adventure with his younger brother Willie. No school and no bullies to remind him that he's not one of the crowd. The year is 1955. If you grew up in the 1950s and the 1960s, you may be among those who like to recall those good old “Happy Days” of television fame. Even younger generations enjoy watching the old TV reruns to get a peek into what life was like back then. Nine-year-old Shawn Daniels is ready to embark on a Saturday adventure with his younger brother Willie. They're off to search for trash to turn into treasure. It's going to be a great day. Shawn is sure of  it. No school and no bullies to remind him that he's not one of the crowd. PURE TRASH is a story about bullies and what it’s like to be bullied. It may redefine your concept of bullying. If you were a child who was thought of as “different” in some way, you know what bullying is about: torment, persecution, intimidation, to name a few of its descriptors. For Shawn and Willie, their difference was based upon the social status of the dysfunctional family and the alcoholism and abject poverty in which they grew up. Excerpt BRAKES, BIKE TIRES AND A CLOUD OF DUST announced our arrival in the gravelly sand covering Stark’s parking lot. I was feeling like David right after he conquered the giant Goliath. That’s when I looked up and spotted Mr. Wentworth pointing over at Willie and me from his brand-spankin’ new 1955 Ford pickup. That red truck shined just like the candied apples Mum made for us kids in the fall. I could hear his deep-throated laugh as he stared at us boys from across the lot. “There’s Eddy Daniels’s boys, regular chips off the old block,” I heard him telling old Tom Matthews, the town barber. As the men laughed and talked, Mr. Wentworth’s steel-like eyes never lost sight of Willie and me. Sometimes I hated coming to town. Like I hated going to school. Folks like the Wentworths always made me feel like a nobody. The minute I’d spot them, I could feel my breath stop. My hands, my teeth and my stomach all got sucked in together. I wanted to throw up. I hated that feeling.

A Story of the 1950s, how a great day was interrupted
Shawn and Willie live in the woods. Their family doesn't have indoor water or a flush toilet yet, but they do have a TV. The boys plan a great day together. Activities on the agenda are straight out of the nineteen fifties.

On the other hand, the ugliness of human nature displayed here could be from any era, as the judgmental neighbors and degrading torments that come from others could take place in present time as well as way back then.

Young adults and Middle grade children will find this book to be an enjoyable quick read. Most children and adults as well can identify with the emotion displayed here. We have all felt the sting of degrading remarks targeted at us for no other reason than another wants to shower their meanness in order to satisfy their own judgmental spirit.

Find out how a wonderful day takes a few twists and turns, how others can destroy the joy in your life, but only if you allow them, and how those who have little can still rise above those who think they are superior.

Shawn and Willie are two delightful young boys who lift your spirits and let you know life is all in the way you look at it.

Written by Bette A. Stevens. This is a book near and dear to my heart. I give it five ***** stars.

This book has been reviewed by Susan Hornbach, author of children's literature.