Steve Watkins’ first novel intended for younger readers is Down Sand Mountain. 
It’s set in the autumn of 1966 in a small Florida mining town and follows the day-to-day life of 12-year old Dewey Turner.
Dewey’s a worrier who doesn’t really fit in. He hopes high school will bring a change in his life, but instead starts the school year all wrong by painting himself black with shoe polish the night before school starts and thus starting a series of nicknames, bullying and exclusion worse than he expected or can really deal with. He finds a friend in another social outcast, Darla Turkel, and the novel takes us along with them during that fall when many things about their lives and their community start to change. Dewey discovers a lot about the world: secrets, prejudices, and injustice, and about himself and the meaning of trust, friendship, and doing the right thing.
I enjoyed this book: its slow, meditative quality; the thoughtful and sometimes heartbreaking struggles that Dewey has within himself; the carefully painted picture of this town on the verge of perhaps unwelcome change in the 1960’s; and the many parralells and intimations to To Kill a Mockingbird. I’m not entirely sure, however, that these qualities will capture younger readers and hold onto them long enough to get through this story, even though it’s certainly worth it. It’s a book focused on a young person, but I did feel that it would take a more mature reader’s patience to settle in with it and enjoy it. It is definitely a worthy read – for the themes of angst, loss of innocence, and social justice – it will just require the right readers to come along.
- Posted by Cori