"Stuck in Neutral" by Terry Trueman

Terry Trueman’s “Stuck in Neutral” is entirely from the perspective of Shawn, a fifteen year old with Cerebral Palsy. The interesting element of this story, especially as Shawn is actually telling the story, is that everyone believes that he is incapable of truly thinking or feeling anything. While his parents and siblings occasionally question whether he is coherent, there is a widespread belief that Shawn is entirely unaware of what is going on around him. Due to this belief as well as an inability to watch his son suffer, his father begins to plot his death. He whispers to Shawn from time to time, noting that he loves him too much to watch him suffer. Shawn is aware of his father’s plot, yet is able to do nothing, "There is one final bad-news punch line to my life. This bad news is complicated, difficult to explain. In a nutshell, it's that I am pretty sure that my dad is planning to kill me. The good news is that he'd be doing this out of his love for me. The bad news is that whatever the wonderfulness of his motives, I'll be dead" (Trueman 2). Shawn faces an unending battle with himself, questioning with his father is justified in killing him. While he never truly finds a rationale, the book ends with Shawn and his father sitting face to face in his bedroom, establishing meaningful eye contact, while his father holds a pillow in his lap. Trueman leaves the ending up in the air to allow the reader to establish his or her own truth within the novel.

I would teach Terry Trueman’s “Stuck in Neutral” as a whole class book to middle and high school students. However, I think that I would teach this with a second book that takes a less severe look at cerebral palsy. I loved the honesty evoked within “Stuck in Neutral,” yet I think that it would be beneficial for students to recognize what teenagers similar to Shawn are capable of accomplishing.
In order to teach this novel, I would want to ensure that students have a firm understanding of Shawn’s condition, and do not have misconceptions about Cerebral Palsy. In covering a book such as this, I feel that it is essential that we as a class hold multiple discussions before, during and after reading the book to maintain a comfort level in the midst of a rather uncomfortable topic.