'Dying child' memoirs are not my favourite genre, but this one stood out because it was over the top, and quiet. When Ben finds out that he'll be lucky to live through his senior year he decides to live life entirely on his terms. This includes joining the football team, reforming the town alcoholic, and asking out the girl of his dreams. But living life to the full isn't as easy as it seems - especially when you don't tell anyone you're dying. I especially liked Ben's relationship with his brother. ( )

“I figure if Doc is right about the time I have left, I should wrap up my adolescence in the next few days, get into my early productive stages about the third week of school, go through my midlife crisis during Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday, redouble my efforts at productivity and think about my legacy, say, Easter, and start cashing in my 401(k)s a couple weeks before Memorial Day. I don’t have to worry about making enough money to put kids through college so I can focus on the more philosophical elements of my life.”

Ben Wolf may seem to be taking his impending death in an offhand manner, but his deadpan assessment of his last year alive is a coping mechanism. He’s coping with the death sentence handed to him during a routine physical checkup to clear him for his senior year of cross-country. Instead of clearing him, Ben discovers he has a rare, aggressive, fatal blood disease; he begins to take a hard look at his life and to make some changes.

Instead of just going through the days, Ben wants the final year of his life to be meaningful for himself and others. He decides to tell no one that he’s dying. Ben also refuses treatment for, as he puts it, “…without treatment my chances sucked, but with it they still sucked and somehow I knew my chances aren’t about living, they’re about living well.” In this quest to live well, he quits cross-country and joins his brother on the football field, he speaks up for his beliefs (and for Malcom X) in class, and he befriends the town drunk.

Each character in Deadline helps Ben face his forthcoming deadline in his or her own way–his brother Cody as a football teammate and as the Wolf who will carry on, the love of his life Dallas Suzuki as his first, the town drunk Rudy McCoy as the man who teaches him about mistakes and covering up the truth, Coach Banks as his mentor and encourager, and his conversational partner during dreams Hey-Soos as the one who helps him think through the meaning of life and truth. Ben’s cantankerous teacher, Mr. Lambeer, even helps in his own way by forcing Ben to “hijack the curriculum” to speak up for his freedoms and his beliefs.

Deadline mixes levity with gravity. Deadline tackles many weighty themes: secrets, truth, family, mental illness, death, child molestation, and censorship to name a few. As Ben tells us and as we all discover at times, “Planet Earth is a tough town.” But he also shows us that that doesn’t mean we can’t make the most of our time in it.

There’s much to appreciate about Deadline. Some readers will appreciate the football action. Some will appreciate the relationships that develop (Particularly poignant, for me, was the relationship of Ben with his brother). Some will appreciate the philosophical aspects. Some will appreciate and admire Ben’s courage. Some will simply appreciate the fact that they’re alive and able to read a book.

Deadline’s plot has similarities with Jenny Downham’s Before I Die in that both stories chronicle the protagonist’s final time on earth. Before I Die mainly focuses on Tessa’s fulfilling her list of personal desires. In Deadline, Ben’s final actions and desires reflect both personal desires and desires to have a lasting positive impact on others. Both stories imagine the almost unimaginable–what would you do or want to do if you knew you were living out your final days? ( )

I read Dealine for a young adult materials class I am taking for my MLS. I fell in love with the book and can't wait to read more Chris Crutcher. I don't like to give too much of the plot away, since I think some readers like to "discover" the story by themselves, but I will say that I cried! Chris Crutcher is very easy to read and has a gift for saying a lot with few words. His characters are smart and fun and it is easy to find peices of people you know in them. ( )

Ben Wolf is a normal senior, concerned with the worries of the everyday teenager: college, sports, and girls. Where Ben branches out from his classmates, is in regard to being terminally ill. After running blood tests he was told by his doctor that he had less than a year to live; he probably wouldn’t make it to graduation.
Chris Crutcher does a masterful job of conveying the thought processes and motivations of not only the average teen but also the dying man. The phoenix like atmosphere of Ben’s last days, going out in flames, adorns the rich but realistic writing style of Crutcher who also does an excellent job of turning this first-person narrative into a dialogue of Ben’s emotions and feelings.
Ben Wolf proves a refreshing piece of humanity in all that he does, allowing readers to attempt to emulate his tranquility. Although calm in his disposition, Ben is far from resigned or defeated by the prospect of death. It is in his resilience to the conceptions about his inevitable death where Ben Wolf establishes himself as an admirable and remarkable individual full of compassion and poised to live life to its fullest. Crutcher does a novel job by avoiding the tendency to fall into death euphemisms like: passing on, no longer with us and any other equivocations that the victim or observer would fall privy to in writing such a work, or perhaps it should be Ben that gets the praise and commendations for his last stand and determination for as Ben grows throughout the book, readers grow with him allowing all readers not to pity him but rather respecting him for it. Ben’s smart-aleck comments prove inspirational at imparting Ben’s characteristic good humour into the acceptance of his fate while still holding on to his indefatigable optimism.
This novel is not for the faint of heart nor is it for the fairy-tale reader who waits to hear the “happily ever after.” Ben Wolf’s story is for the indomitable, the strong, the invincible persona, for it is a story of living, not dying, of celebration not mourning, of commendation not eulogy. Deadline is the quintessential bucket-list book. In this case however, Ben Wolf flat-out refuses to go without a fight. A truly inspirational novel, Deadline is a must read for teenagers and readers of all ages who can fully appreciate the struggle and also the success that Ben Wolf was, and became. ( )

What I can't figure out is this: Did Ben seriously expect he could get away without telling anyone he was sick? In the fall he made it sound like he would carry on for a year and then suddenly drop dead. But in the spring he got really fatigued, missed school, and was eventually unable to get out of bed at all -- did he really believe his dad and brother would not notice or worry about those things? This is a pretty major plot hole that was never really addressed. And I found Ben, as a character, incredibly annoying. Especially all those outbursts in his history class, acting like he knows everything. He reminds me uncomfortably of myself at age 16.

This is typical Crutcher with all of his marks: the evil racist xenophobic bastard whom the protagonist fights with, the sports, the nice understanding coach, child abuse, etc. I would recommend it to fans of his as I'm sure they'll love it. ( )