Chris Crutcher

I really appreciate an author who keeps getting better, whose books gain depth and clarity with time. I enjoyed Chris Crutcher's books 12 years ago when I was in high school, and I found this book insightful and moving. I wouldn't have thought that an author could pack a handful of serious social issues, heavy interpersonal and existential drama, a love story, and a football story all into one book and leave room for humor, character development, recommendations for further reading, and show more charmingly eccentric theology. But man, Chris Crutcher manages it.

I also loved the further look at the now grown-up hero of Running Loose, which I have to admit was never my favorite Crutcher book.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book. To anyone. (erm. Anyone over the age of 13 -- the abovementioned serious social issues, in typical Crutcher style, pack quite a wallop.) show less

This young adult novel gripped my teen readers, showing up in the hands of non-readers sitting on the school hallway floor in front of lockers. These were cool high school boys who, for the first time in my long teaching experience, ignored the scorn of their peers to read. A magic story that drives through every environment in the adolescent landscape, from unplanned pregnancy to teen suicide, by way of gangs, drugs, child molesting, sportsmania, and parents still suffering from the last show more war. My juniors wrote with more conviction and passion in response to this book than any other in my teaching experience. show less

Chris Crutcher gets it right--the anger, the hurt, the prejudice, the fear, the love, the forgiveness--that modern teens face. His books are often censored for topic or language by folks who cannot tolerate an open point of view, and that's too bad. These three novellas, reuniting various characters from other works, allow life resolutions for those characters. Some are good, and some are not--I cried through the ending of one. And, yes to an earlier review posted here, such things happen in show more small towns. They also happen in large cities, which is why it is important to be able to read and share these stories. show less

I was intrigued by the concept of this book when it was presented to me: fat boy and deformed girl have been friends since childhood, united by their outsider status. What happens to the friendship when fat boy slims down and starts to get popular?

But that wasn't what this book was about at all. The formerly fat boy never really considers abandoning his friend, so instead the conflict revolves around a fairly ludicrous and melodramatic storyline involving horrific child abuse, catatonia, show more cross-country pursuit, and a knife-wielding villain lurking in dark shadows. I guess I can see why kids would be grabbed by that kind of drama, but it all seemed a little silly and far-fetched to me, frequently depending on HUGE coincidences.

Another thing that bothered me is the degree to which adults ultimately solved all the problems in the book. It's supposed to be a coming of age novel, about teenagers making their first forays into adulthood, but it seemed like in the end, all the characters were infantilizined by the adults swooping in to the rescue.

And finally, I was disturbed by the way that every Christian in the book (except the sainted Episcopalians) was portrayed as an amoral hypocrite. Laying it on a bit thick, perhaps? show less