Spinelli's writing accepts young people for what they are. According to Ethel R. Twichell in a Horn Book review of Dump Days, Spinelli "neither judges nor berates but shakes everyone up in his own bag of tricks and watches to see what will spill out."

He develops a strong person-againstself conflict with the opening sentence of the story, "He did not want to be a wringer."

This simple statement pulls the reader in at once. Who is he? What is a wringer? Why does he not want to be a wringer? This conflict is supported throughout the story as Palmer inevitably approaches age ten, the age of wringers. From time to time he is able to push the thought from his mind, forgetting it "for minutes, hours, maybe even for a day or two," but it always returns, and it seems there is no one he...