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Readers > Talk it Up! > Discussion guides > 2011 Oregon Reader's Choice Award Nominees > Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go

Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go by Dale Basye

Discussion guide written by Cathy Camper.

Summary

When timid Milton and his older, hooligan sister Marlo die in a marshmallow bear explosion at Grizzly Mall, they are sent to Heck, an otherworldly reform school from which they are determined to escape.

Booktalk

Everybody screws up a little, right? I mean, no one gets through life without doing a few bad things. I bet even you have a couple of evil secrets. I mean, how bad is it really, to take something that isn't yours, or to tell a few lies, if no one ever finds out? Especially if you're a kid, there's no way doing something bad is going to send you to h-e-double-hockey sticks.

That's what Marlo and Milton Fauster think, until they're both accidentally killed at the Mall of Generica, when a marshmallow bear explodes, smothering the shoplifting Marlo and her innocent brother in sticky white goo. That's when they discover that being underage might save you from fire and brimstone, but it doesn't rescue you from Heck, the place where bad kids go –the worst kind of detention you can ever imagine.

What's Heck like? Like your school gone bad, REALLY bad. Imagine a warehouse with grey carpet that smells like cat pee and instant soup mix. Unfriendly wall posters scare instead of inspire you, showing a man walking to the gallows, with the caption, "Today is the last day of the rest of your life." Maybe you'll pass through the Cafeterium, where you may dream of pizza but all you get to eat is moldy liver and slimy brussel sprouts. You'll have to stop by the Disorientation Assignment counter, and wait, and wait and wait…only to find out you're in Richard Nixon's Ethics class.

If like Marlo and Milton, you can't stand being in Heck for one more minute, much less all eternity, you better have a strong stomach. Escape is almost as bad – swimming through the sewers of the underworld, with Bea "Elsa" Bubb, the Principal of Darkness and her fierce dog Anubis nipping at your heels.

Everybody screws up a little, right? But would you still screw up if you knew you'd end up in Heck?

288 pages, 6 th grade and up

Discussion questions

Warning! Some of the questions contain key elements of the plot. Do not read if you don't want to know what happens!

  1. Why do you think the author used school as a parallel for the underworld? Give some examples of school functions were included as part of Heck.
  2. Do some research in encyclopedias and on the Internet about Dante's Divine Comedy. How did the author use Dante's idea for his book for kids?
  3. Make a diagram of your own version of H-E-double hockey sticks. Are there layers of punishment? What determines who ends up in your underworld? Is there a way for residents to escape or to improve their situations?
  4. There are a lot of puns and wordplay in this book: things like "Mall of Generica" and Bea "Elsa" Bub. What's your favorite pun from the book? Can you make up a pun of your own?

If you liked this book, try

Activities

Powells Books interviews Dale E. Basye
The author lives in Portland, OR and here he answers lots of questions, like why he writes books for kids, his favorite character in history, and what he likes to eat for breakfast.

Dante's Divine Comedy
Dante wrote the Divine Comedy, on which he based Heck. Here's a short biography of his life, and a description of his book.

Visit the Heck website. Learn more about the author, check out the "heckstras," and learn about the second book in the series, Rapacia.

Listen to a podcast interview with Heck's author Dale Basye.

Snacks

Liver (optional!) and devil's food cake