From Publishers Weekly
Good-natured North Carolina delinquent Wesley Benfield forms a controversial gospel band with his fellow halfway house inmates and falls in love in this whimsical sequel to Walking Across Egypt .
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
YA-- Through a federal grant, Ballard University, a Baptist school in North Carolina sponsors a halfway house with the optimistic name "Back on Track Again." Its residents teach skills such as masonry, sewing, and plumbing to the public school's special-education classes. Former car thief Wesley Benfield, first introduced in Edgerton's Walking Across Egypt (Algonquin, 1987), lives there and teaches the art of bricklaying to 16-year-old Vernon Jackson. Vernon, although mentally handicapped, has a vivid imagination and a talent for hard-headed arguments. He also has an incredible musical talent. YAs will delight in Edgerton's finely drawn and wonderfully human characters. In addition to Wesley and Vernon, they will meet Wesley's girlfriend, a resident of the the university's Christian diet center; Mattie Rigsby, the grandmotherly instrument of Wesley's reformation; and Ned and Ted Sears, the gladhanding president and provost who seem more interested in Universtiy expansion than the word of God. The book abounds with lighthearted situations and with subtle satirical undercurrents. Edgerton humorously chides the Christian college establishment for its judgmental attitudes and opportunistic behavior. Killer Diller will surely provide side-splitting comic relief in this day of social, economic, and political crises.
- Carol Clark, R. E. Lee High School, Springfield, VACopyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
