Deadline

Okay, enough girl books! Its seems I have been reading a lot of a “girl” books lately, and I needed to branch out and read something different. So I decided that Chris Crutcher’s new book Deadline would be just the right change! I love Chris Crutcher! He visited our school three years ago and gave fantastic presentations! He knows how to relate to teenagers in both his speaking and his writing.

Deadline is about Ben Wolf who is told at the beginning of the book that he has about a year to live. Ben is a senior in high school and 18 years old and with the help of his doctor he decides not to pursue treatment that probably wouldn’t work anyway and he decides not to tell anyone about his condition. Ben wants to live his senior year to the fullest without everyone feeling sorry for him. So he sets out to make changes in his life. The first change is that he decides to go out for football. Ben weighs 123 pounds soaking wet, but he has always wanted to try football and this is the time in his life to do everything he always wanted to do. He also finally gets the courage to talk to Dallas Suzuki, the girl of his dreams. Ben discovers that hiding the truth from people he cares about is harder than he thought. This book hits hard Crutcher’s message of Life is short, live it to its fullest. Ben learns to tell people the truth and show them you care. Crutcher does a great job describing the action of the football games and he keeps the humor going in the book so it doesn’t feel too dark despite the subject.

Running Loose by Chris Crutcher is one of my all time favorite books. The main character Louie Banks goes through a series of struggles in this book when he refuses to purposely injure another player and is kicked off the football team. Louie finds comfort in running. Louie is one of the greatest characters in young adult literature. I was thrilled to learn that Louie returns in the book Deadline. He has returned to his hometown and is now the football coach at Trout High school in Trout, Idaho. He is also a father figure to Ben and his brother Cody. This is just another great part of this book.