194:(real name: Peter Stephen Schinner) is Jason's best friend and First Keeper of the Sacred Text of Chutengodianism. As a hobby, he farms snails. Shin is Jason's first follower. Unlike the other Chutengodians, Shin takes the religion seriously, believing the water tower is speaking to him. His belief is so deep that he sneaks out during a midnight thunderstorm to climb the water tower, seeking some sort of enlightenment. Jason cannot convince Shin to come back down. Shin wants to swim in the godhead, like the others had done at the first mass.
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Just Al, the "head brainwasher,". His best friend, Shin, is a snail farmer. Jason has uncertain feelings for Magda Price. He does not much care for the infamous Henry Stagg and his "three stooges." At first, Chutengodianism seems to be going great. As things progress, Founder and Head Kahuna, Jason, must try to hold his religion together while it decomposes.
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is a pretty girl who works at
Wigglesworth. The third member of the new religion, she joins after overhearing Jason and Shin talking about their new church. They originally disapprove of her joining, but later agree that Chutengodians should not discriminate based on gender. Magda's relationship with
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is Jason's ordinary friend. He is so average that one has to meet him several times before remembering his name. He is a preacher's son and the second acolyte of the "Ten-Legged One". After the fiasco at the water tower, Dan holds a grudge against Jason for getting him in trouble and messing up his
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is the leader of the TPO meetings. Jason refers to him as a "car salesman" with the ability to change the subject to whatever he wants. Jason often finds ways of annoying Al or disrupting the meetings in some way. Al usually responds by changing the subject or giving a small speech about faith and
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is Jason's devout
Catholic father. Bothered by Jason's disbelief in God, he forces him to attend Teen Power Outreach. For most of the story, he disapproves of Jason's new religion, only to accept it at the end of the novel. After the Chutengodians' ill-fated meeting on top of the water tower, Mr.
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is a large, 15-year-old boy from St. Andrew Valley. Fed up with
Catholicism, he invents his own religion, Chutengodianism, worshipping the town water tower. His father forces him to attend weekly Teen Power Outreach meetings, which Jason refers to as brainwashing sessions. He enjoys messing with
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is the last to join the
Chutengodians. Not caring what happens to him or others, Henry is somewhat of a bully to Jason and Shin. He will not hurt innocent victims, but will pick on any able bodied person. He has a collection of Velociraptors in his garage, which he cherishes. He breaks from the
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is Jason's mother. Obsessed with a medical book (which Jason says she reads like the Bible), she loves to diagnose her son with extremely rare conditions. Throughout the story, she worries that Jason has some sort of sleep condition, although he insists that he just likes to sleep.
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The teenagers represent the colonization of childhood by adults. Jason and Shin are contrasts in how religion is approached by teens; Jason questions the authority of religion, while Shin accepts it.
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sparks religious controversy as many parents question the motivation behind the story. Pete
Hautman responds to this controversy on his webpage.
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Henry Stagg evolves throughout the book. Magda allegedly helps Henry create his commandments for the "Choots", an offshoot of
Chutengodianism.
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tells the story of Jason Bock, a fifteen-year-old boy, who questions his father's
Catholic religion. Jason invents his own religion, "
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God. He is known for his unique prayers, which typically state something about Jesus being "one cool dude".
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Church of the Ten-Legged One, forming the "Choots" with his friends, Mitch Cosmo, Marsh
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is the priest at the local
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Bock instructs Jason to write book reports on five
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National Book Award for Young People's Literature winning works
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The Looking Glass: New Perspectives on Children's Literature
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175:Characters
295:"Godless"
231:Mrs. Bock
198:Dan Grant
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224:Mr. Bock
115:52386196
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20:Godless
327:4 April
244:Just Al
169:Godless
155:Godless
136:Godless
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257:Themes
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329:2012
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
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