The Seventh Most Important Thing
by manz
The Seventh Most Important Thing by Shelley Pearsall received a lot of Newbery buzz in 2015, and while it didn’t win the award, it’s still a winner.
"On a bitter November day in Washington, D.C., when everything felt metallic – when the sky was gray and the wind stung and the dry leaves were making death-rattle sounds in the alleys – thirteen-year-old Arthur Owens picked up a brick from the corner of a crumbling building and threw it at an old man's head."
It didn’t hit the man’s head, it hit his arm. Arthur is then sent to juvie and ultimately assigned community service working for the old man – who they called the Junk Man, since he’s often spotted wheeling a shopping cart and digging through garbage throughout the neighborhood. Was Arthur really supposed to pick through trash collecting things for the crazy old man who stole his dead father’s hat?
Arthur is tasked with rummaging for what the Junk Man, AKA James Hampton, AKA St. James, calls the seven most important things: light bulbs, foil, mirrors, pieces of wood, glass bottles, coffee cans, and cardboard. His father has died, his sister is a pest, he has no friends, he gets bullied at school, he spent time in juvie and is now known as a "bad kid," and now he has to work for the Junk Man collecting weird stuff. Eventually Arthur comes to realize the importance of what the trash will become, and this bit of community service ends up being a life-changing experience for all involved.
The book is set in 1960s but you can barely tell. The character of Hampton is based on real-life American folk artist James Hampton who spent over a decade creating his vision of heaven from scraps. While Hampton is based on a real man the rest of the characters and story are fictitious. If you're not familiar with Hampton's art, read the book before you dig for details!
It’s a lovely youth novel, great for middle grade readers and for fans of Gary Schmidt’s books.
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