There is life and there is death, In life, Peter lives in an average middle-class home, but he attends a school that has programs for eleven and twelve-year-olds that many other schools would lack, such as art classes, after-school sports, and letter jackets for athletes. Even so, the homework and tests are common ones. At home, Peter's artistic interests grate on his father, who works as a printer, and his mother, who has a practical attitude acquired from her upbringing on a farm. The parents' irritation with their whiny son and Peter's belief that they just do not understand him may be found in many families and among many children.

Death is uncomfortable for Peter: "1 missed everything. I even missed stupid ordinary things I'd never thought about, like the taste of toothpaste. I wanted my teeth back, I wanted my body back, I wanted my life back," says...