The Crazy Horse Electric Game

interesting book about a boy in a white suburban and/or rural town who is in an accident that transforms him from sports-type-popular guy to outcast perceived as a loser. He leaves his all American town and moves to the slums in CA--near SF and finds himself through his ability to survive and be happy where he is, in a diverse area.

I love the concept that diversity breeds the betterment of the character, and of all kids. However, I don't know how realistic the sitch is. Would a school whose hero becomes physically challenged (non pc term is crippled, and is ostracized by the whole school. I don't think that would happen. It didn't in our town under similar circumstances.

Still the book brings up excellent issues and is a page turner.

Willie Weaver is 16 and a star athlete. When he is injured in a water skiing accident, his life changes dramatically. His family falls apart, and his girlfriend begins dating someone else. Willie leaves town and finds himself in Oakland, CA, where an alternative high school, a bus driver/pimp, a gym teacher, and a Chinese martial arts instructor all have profound influences on him.

Willie is on top of the word when he wins the baseball game of the season dubbed The Crazy Horse Electric Game. He’s invincible, he’s unstoppable, he’s untouchable. That is until the accident that left him hopelessly crippled. He can hardly move, hardly talk, and there is hardly a thing he can do about it. And while he’s crippled, he sees his perfect, non-fighting mother and father slowly drive each other away, and his girlfriend cheat on him. And there is nothing he can do about it. So he runs away.

He ends up quite by chance at OMLC High School. The letters stand for One More Last Chance, and are a place where people with mental and physical disabilities go to be helped and nurtured. There he starts to feel more and better, but show more what is waiting for him elsewhere? Willie is not the same person as he was at the time of the Crazy Horse Electric Game.

This one was kind of a dud book, and I knew it was going to be. It wasn’t bad by any means of the sense, but compared to the other Crutcher books, it fell flat. But like I said, it wasn’t bad at all.

Rating: Three and a Half Stars *** ½ show less

A teenage boy who has everything -- great athlete, good looks, wonderful girlfriend, etc., -- struggles to deal with the radical change in his life when he is partially crippled in a freak accident.

best written book i have ever read and am happy with the authors work