STUCK IN NEUTRAL
Book By: Terry Trueman
By: Brittany Hester
AUTHORS
INFORMATION
AUTHORS INFORMATION



Terry Trueman was
born on December 15,
1947 in Birmingham,
Alabama, but grew up
in Seattle.
He attended the
University of
Washington, where he
received his B.A. in
creative writing.
He also has an M.S. in
applied psychology and
an M.F.A. in creative
writing, both from
Eastern Washington
University.
SOME AWARDS TRUEMAN OBTAINED


2000 Booklist Editors Choice Awards
Publishers Association 2001 NASEN Highly
Commended Award (UK)

2001 Isinglass Teen Book Award

2002 Kentucky Bluegrass Award
OTHER BOOKS

Other Books written by Trueman..
- Hurricane
- 7 Days at the hot corner
- Swallowing the sun
- Cruise Control
RESOURCE
RESOURCE
Can be found in our library.
 Cruise Control, Call Number- F TRU ,Copyright2004
 Stuck In Neutral, Call Number- F TRU,
Copyright- 2000

RESOURCES

Inside Out and No Right Turn is a book written
by Trueman but not found in our library.
SIMILAR BOOKS





Because she’s my friend By: Harriet Sirof, call number- F
SIR, Copyright- 1993
Mind’s eye By: Paul Fleischman, Call number- F FLE,
Copyright- 1999
Tell me how the wind sounds By: Leslie Davis Guccione,
Call number- F GUC, Copyright- 1989
When the road ends By: Jean Thesman, Call number- F
THE, Copyright- 1992
Cerebral palsy By: Nathan Aasenq (Nonfiction) , Call
number- 616.8 AAS, Copyright- 1991
RELATED WEBSITES

Title- For my child: Help and Hope for Life, URLhttp://www.cerebralpalsy.org/, Date VisitedFebruary 28,2011
RECOMMENDATION
RECOMMENDATION

Everyone should read this book because it shows
their is more than a person then just what meets
the eye. The book portrays that there is nothing
to fear but fear itself but not every end is painful
sometimes it’s a new beginning. This is a sad
book but it will keep your interested in what is
going to happen next, how is it going to end and
what will be become the outcome of everything.
CHARACTER
DESCRIPTION
MAIN CHARACTERS


Shawn McDaniel's – He is the boy in the
wheelchair that can’t speak or move and the book
is all about him and suppose to be from his point
of view. Shawn fears that he dad wants to kill
him because his father kept saying “should I put
you out of your pain?”
Cindy- She is Shawn's sister and she stands up
for him throughout the book and she tried to
teach him how to read.
MAIN CHARACTERS CONTINUE


Syd McDaniel- He is Shawn's father the one that
loves his son but at the same time wishes his son
was different is it because he don’t won’t people
to look at his son weird or because he don’t won’t
his son in pain?
Paul- He is Shawn's brother and he got in a fight
over someone messing with Shawn and he stood
up for his brother and was there for him no
matter what.
PLOT
DEVELOPMENT
EXPOSITION


Protagonist- Shawn
McDaniels
There is really no
Antagonist but the
bad character in the
book is portrayed to be
Syd. McDaniels
Background Info.
- Shawn McDaniel has
brain damage and his
mother lindy has took
care of him with the
help of his brother and
sister since his father
left when they when
the kids where all
little.

CONFLICT

Man VS Self
- Shawn struggles with himself not being able to
control nothing. His conflict with himself is
internal mostly all emotional.
RISING ACTION
Rising Action
- Shawn was born with brain damage and is not a
normal child but he is still a human. His
struggles to help himself and speak out for
himself this is important because he could never
tell his dad he felt no pain.

CLIMAX

Shawn’s father comes in and relieves the
babysitter of her job and said that we will watch
his son for the rest of the night that she could go
home.
FALLING ACTION

The babysitter leaves Shawn there with his
father not aware what’s on Syd. Mind. After the
baby sitter walks out Syd. And his son Shawn is
all alone.
RESOLUTION

The stories doesn’t really have a ending. Shawn
and his father are alone in Shawn's room and his
father is talking about ending his pain and how
much he loves him and hates to see him suffer.
Shawn begins to have a seizure and he has one of
his out of body experiences and the book ends
with him saying he wasn’t worried about what
his father was going to do that he was free!
SUMMARY
SUMMARY

Shawn is a normal teenage boy. He likes girls, he
likes music and television. However, there is one
thing about him that's special: he is physically
incapable of movement. He can't move his legs,
arms, mouth, eyes, toes or anything. He can't
move at all. He sits there drooling in his
wheelchair. The world looks at him as mentally
retarded, simply because he looks different and
can't speak or move. On the contrary, he is more
intelligent than most people. He understands
everything that is said about him, but no one
knows.
SUMMARY CONTINUES
No one knows him for who he is and no one even
knows that he can think. Shawn is noticing
something weird about his father. He's making
weird comments such as, “I want to put you out
of your pain”, and "What is the purpose of your
life? Shawn is certain his father is going to kill
him. But Shawn can't tell anyone or even fight
back.
SUMMARY CONTINUES

The book portrays a boys everyday struggle
through life to succeed in something he fails in
everyday. It shows hope is something that keeps
us going everyday through the horrible thing we
call life. We can’t choose how we are born but we
can choose how we are and how we act. The book
also shows that everybody deals with everything
in different ways not everyone copes with their
feelings or struggles throughout life the same
way.
WORK CITED
"About Terry Trueman." TerryTrueman.com.
Web. 18 Feb. 2011.
<http://www.terrytrueman.com/about.htm>.
 "Awards, Honors and Credits."
TerryTrueman.com. Web. 18 Feb. 2011.
<http://www.terrytrueman.com/about_Awards.ht
m>.
 Google.com. Web. 18 Feb. 2011.
<http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&biw=994
&bih=632&q=terry+trueman&bav=on.1,or.&um=
1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi>.
 Trueman, Terry. Stuck in Neutral. New York,
NY: HarperCollinsPublishers, 2000. Print.
