Ben Wolf is entering his senior year with big plans. He didn’t plan to just coast and party his last year in school, like most guys. As he put it, “It was my year to read everything I could get my hands on, to speak up, push myself and my teachers to get the true hot poop on the World at Large, so I could hit the ground running.” As it turns out, Ben finds out that he has a disease that gives him only about a year to live. So, he decides to scrap his original plans and dare to take big risks. He’s way too little for it, but he decides to play on the football team at school. After all, what does he have to lose? He also decides to go after the hot girl that he thinks is way out of his league. He doesn’t plan to tell anyone about his diagnosis, so they'll still treat him "normally." But he begins to wonder if it's the right thing to do keeping it from his family and friends. Should he let them prepare?
So, how would you live your life if you only had one year left?
I always enjoy Chris Crutcher’s books, and this one was no different. He deals with major issues with such style, yet without overdoing it. His writing is so distinct and familiar that reading the first page was like being with an old friend again. He has the most awesome way of putting things. Check this out: “Dallas Suzuki may sound to you like a car dealership in Texas, but for the past three years, she has been the single prey in the crosshairs of my Cupid’s bow, and she doesn’t know it because she is way, way out of my league.”
Seriously, what a cool sentence! And the character name, come on- how’d he think that up?
This whole book is full of those kind of awesome sentences (and so are his other books).
Some others to consider by Crutcher:
SLEDDING HILL
STAYING FAT FOR SARAH BYRNES
IRONMAN
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