# Down Sand Mountain

**Author:** Steve Watkins
**Grade range:** Grades 4–9
**First published:** 2011
**Page count:** 334
**Genre:** Children's
**ISBN-13:** `9780763654313`
**ISBN-10:** `0763654310`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/down-sand-mountain
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

In a tale full of humor and poignancy, a sheltered twelve-year-old boy comes of age in a small Florida mining town amid the changing mores of the 1960s. It's 1966 and Dewey Turner is determined to start the school year right. No more being the brunt of every joke. No more "Deweyitis." But after he stains his face with shoe polish trying to mimic the popular Shoeshine Boy at the minstrel show, he begins seventh grade on an even lower rung, earning the nickname Sambo and being barred from the "whites only" bathroom. The only person willing to talk to him, besides his older brother, Wayne, is fellow outsider Darla Turkel, who wears her hair like Shirley Temple and sings and dances like her, too. Through their friendship, Dewey gains awareness of issues bigger than himself and bigger than his 

## Where this book is assigned

### Golden Kite Award

- **recommended** · 4th grade — [source: Golden Kite Award (SCBWI) winners, via Wikipedia — 2009 Winner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Kite_Award)
- **recommended** · 5th grade — [source: Golden Kite Award (SCBWI) winners, via Wikipedia — 2009 Winner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Kite_Award)
- **recommended** · 6th grade — [source: Golden Kite Award (SCBWI) winners, via Wikipedia — 2009 Winner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Kite_Award)
- **recommended** · 7th grade — [source: Golden Kite Award (SCBWI) winners, via Wikipedia — 2009 Winner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Kite_Award)
- **recommended** · 8th grade — [source: Golden Kite Award (SCBWI) winners, via Wikipedia — 2009 Winner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Kite_Award)
- **recommended** · 9th grade — [source: Golden Kite Award (SCBWI) winners, via Wikipedia — 2009 Winner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Kite_Award)

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