Great Reading: Bookmark It!

Volume 31, Number 1, October 2003.

Rosemary Chance

The King of Teen Psychology
Grades 8-12

Athletic shorts. Chris Crutcher.
Harper Tempest, 2002. $6.99. 0-06-050783-7.
Characters from Crutcher’s novels appear in six short stories of teens and athletics.

Ironman. Chris Crutcher.
Laurel Leaf, 1996. $4.99. 0-440-21971-X.
Bo Brewster is sent to a before-school anger management group where he falls in love with Shelly, who matches his own passion for physical challenge.

King of the mild frontier: An ill-advised autobiography. Chris Crutcher.
Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins, 2003. $16.00. 0-06-050249-5.
With his delightful humor and insight, Crutcher reveals his life as a kid in all of its awkwardness and embarrassments.

Running loose. Chris Crutcher.
Harper Tempest, 2003. $6.99. 0-06-009491-5.
Romance, tragedy, trial and triumph – all happen to high school senior Louis Banks in Crutcher’s remarkable first novel.

Staying fat for Sarah Byrnes. Chris Crutcher.
HarperCollins, 2003. $6.99. 0-06-009489-3.
Sarah’s burned face and “Moby” Calhoune’s obesity label them as kids with the “terminal uglies.” Their friendship leads them to the terrible truth about Sarah’s burns.

Stotan! Chris Crutcher.
Laurel Leaf, 1988. $5.50. 0-440-20080-6.
Four friends have their lives altered by one week of swimming that tests them physically and emotionally.

Whale talk. Chris Crutcher.
Laurel Leaf, 2002. 0-440-22938-3.
T.J. Jones puts together a swim team of outcasts in his determination that each one will earn a varsity letter jacket and break the jock stereotype.