Mason is a character that you will "love, cherish and hold close in your heart for a long long time." Colby Sharp
"Then he wanted to know did I throw away a handsaw. The one I had. From my birthday. He wanted to know did I toss it somewhere. ... And I was thinking why would I do that?"
Mason had a best friend, a true friend, his only friend but one day his friend died. The ladder to the tree house made by Benny and Mason broke and Benny Kilmartin was killed. Mason was the last person to see Benny alive. Mason tries hard to answer questions from Lieutenant Baird but the policeman is impatient and Mason is not good with obscure questions. He tells Mason to write down what happened but Mason is also not good with reading (its actually impossible for him) or writing. Thank goodness for the wonderful school social worker Ms Blinny. She introduces Mason to a computer with voice recognition software that she calls 'Dragon'. Speaking quietly day after day Mason is able to tell his story and while he is doing this he makes a new friend called Calvin Chumsky.
Mason has more to contend with though because the boys who live near his house have decided to make his life 'hell' with their bullying, name calling and apple missile attacks. Mason lives on an old apple farm. Most of the holding has been sold off by Mason's uncle and the apples are now left to rot on the ground. Each afternoon, when Mason and his new friend Calvin, get off the bus Matt Drinker and Lance Pierson attack. Matt Drinker is an especially mean and nasty kid. Matt has a dog called Moonie. Mason loves this dog (think of Shiloh by Phylis Reynolds Naylor or the dogs in Where the Red fern Grows by Wilson Rawlins) - but the dog belongs to Matt.
Over the coming weeks, Calvin and Mason build something extraordinary, but the issues surrounding the death of Benny won't go away and the policeman keeps visiting and asking those impossible questions.
Here is a comprehensive set of teaching questions from the publisher Harper Collins. Here is a video book talk with more plot details. I adored a previous book by Leslie Connor - Waiting for Normal. In this video Colby Sharp talks about Read Aloud Week and The Truth as told to Mason Buttle. Here is an audio sample.
I would follow The Truth as told to Mason Buttle with these:
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