History Literature / OnMyHonor

->''"On your honor?" Joel's father said.''
->''"You won't go anywhere except the park?"''
->''"On my honor," Joel repeated.''

A [[UsefulNotes/NewberyMedal Newbery-honor]] winning book by Marion Dane Bauer. ''On My Honor'' was published in 1987 and is a common sight in many [[UsefulNotes/SchoolStudyMedia elementary school classrooms]].

* OutDamnedSpot: Tony keeps smelling the polluted river everywhere he goes.

* PoliceAreUseless: Averted hard. The cops quickly gather up evidence about the disappearance of Tony in one day with scraps of evidence to back it all up.

* AdultFear: Tony's death, no questions. Specifically, even though him and Joel were told not to, they go skinny-dipping in the river anyway and he doesn't come back up. His death is especially this for Joel, as he feels guilty for not stopping him from swimming the river in the first place.

A [[UsefulNotes/NewberyMedal Newbery-honor]] winning book by Marion Dane Bauer. ''On My Honor'' was published in 1987 and is a common sight in many [[SchoolStudyMedia elementary school classrooms]].

A [[UsefulNotes/NewberyMedal Newbery-honor]] winning book by MarionDaneBauer. ''On My Honor'' was published in 1987 and is a common sight in many [[SchoolStudyMedia elementary school classrooms]].

* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: When Joel is asking his father to go to the park, his younger brother Bobby asks repeatedly if he can go in an annoying tone. Joel is reminded of “the hovering whine of a mosquito” when he thinks of his whining.
* ComingOfAgeStory: Considering that it involves a couple of near teenage boys, it’s a given.

* DirtyCoward: When the couple who were trying to find Tony wanted to call the police, Joel quickly assured them not to so he wouldn’t get into trouble.
* DontMakeMeTakeMyBeltOff: Joel implies that Tony’s father does this to him, but he’s not actually sure. When Joel brings this up to him in a taunting way, Tony "goes white around the mouth".

* HollywoodDrowning: Averted. While swimming to the sand bar, they just swim with only the sound of splashing. And when Joel reaches the sand bar first and looks back, he realizes Tony is nowhere in sight, having vanished without a cry for help.
* ImprovisedParachute: One time, Tony wanted to parachute out of his bedroom window using his bedsheet. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome It doesn’t work, and he ends up in the hospital]]. The doctor says that he’s lucky to have only gotten minor injuries.

* NakedFirstImpression: Inverted. When wanting some help finding Tony’s body, Joel wants to run up to the highway to flag someone down. Halfway there he realizes that he is buck naked, and if he approached someone for help like that he would make the situation quite awkward. So he runs back to put some of his clothes on before resuming his mission.
* NeverFoundTheBody: When Tony drowns, Joel tried to look for his body, but couldn’t find it anywhere. He then asks a couple who were driving by to the same. They search for a long time, but they conclude that his body probably swept away to deep water. And by the end of the book, his body still hasn’t been found.

* TheStoolPigeon: Bobby happened to see Joel sneak back into their house across the street, so he told their father about it. This almost blows Joel’s cover of what he had been up to today.
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: After Tony dies, Joel tries to keep it a secret from everybody around him. However, the police eventually find Tony’s clothes near the river, which made them put two and two together. And then they hear that Joel was with him when he was last seen, which brought him into questioning. Joel tried to keep his composure, but the pressure really gets to him, and he blurts out the truth.