VVMBookBlog

Chris Crutcher is such a great author, especially for books for older guys and readers ready for a complicated story.  And Deadline is no exception!

Ben is 18 and the older of two brothers who are both seniors in high school. When he goes for his track physical in the fall, his blood tests tell his doctor he has a rare form of a disease that, without or maybe even with, treatment gives his very little time to live.  Since he is 18 and his father is pretty much focused on dealing with his mother who is probably bi-polar, Ben decides he isn’t going to tell anyone and is just going to live his senior year to the fullest!

He does this by:

• going out for the football team (instead of track…he’s rather short) and combined with his brother to form the best quarterback/receiver team around,
• making friends with and eventually going out with hot girl and volleyball player, Dallas Suzuki, and,
• speaking up and questioning the opinions and “teachings” of his social studies teacher, Mr. Lambeer, when Ben’s research on Malcolm X leads him to promote naming a street after Malcolm X in their little town in Idaho, population 943.

Taking risks becomes easier when he has nothing to lose!

Lots of interesting characters in this story, but none is as important to Ben as his spiritual alter-self, Hey-Soos, (get it?) who communicates with Ben in almost-dream states, and helps Ben try to figure out what’s happening and how he should handle the situations that arise in his year of risk-taking.

This book isn’t officially published yet but Ms. Kochel from Olson Middle attending a publisher’s conference in New York and picked up several advance review copies.  So watch for it in September and read another great Crutcher book!

D. J. Schwenk is back and as impressive as ever! You remember D.J. from the book Dairy Queen last year when she managed to be the trainer for the quarterback of their neighboring–and rival–school, got herself onto her own school’s football team, and managed their family dairy farm while her father was recovering from back problems.

Well, she is back now and ready for another school year. Her future looks great with her place on the team, Brian is becoming less of a friend and more of a BOYfriend, and everything else is going great. And I suppose that would make a boring story, so things started happening in D.J.’s world. The author doesn’t come out and tell the reader what’s happening right away, so I’m not going to give anything away here either. Just know that it’s an up-and-down year for D.J. with her brothers older and younger, her mother and father, her friend Amber, and especially with her life with Brian. Why does he act the way he does? And should she put up with it? Okay, that’s all I’m going to tell you. Great author, great story…see what you think!