Less than compelling. I'll stick to his fiction. ( )

Freakin' hilarious! Crutcher's childhood, putting up with his older brother who would always dare him to "do something neat"--which invariably got him (chris) in trouble and the brother off scot free. Great read aloud, too, you won't be able to stop laughing. But he also talks about his whole life, his athletic endeavors, good and bad, and all of the painful things that go into everyone's life. It's just a really really heartfelt book. ( )

Hilarious and heartbreaking, this book went to the depths of a bored adolescent growing up before television was huge, personal computers existed, and the only fun you could have was by going outside and doing something. Chris Crutcher was a gracious failure growing up. His writing style builds up his adolescent ego, boasting of all his confidence in one trend or the other to impress the many beautiful women around him. Each time the writing comes to a crescendo, young Crutcher ultimately, and hilariously, fails. There are many lessons a young adult can learn from this book, and I highly recommend this for students in 8th or 9th grades. ( )

Autobiography of the YA author that reflects on his growing-up years in Cascade, ID. He was a geeky guy who never got the girl. Memorable scenes: the olive/naked boy relay, the glow-in-the-dark Jesus, his questions of religion, his fake book report and how his stories came from his work as a therapist.

Crutcher is an author out of Spokane, WA., and our students love all his novels. This allows students to get a glimpse into who he was and what his background is like. Students love that they can identify many of the places he lived and they also relate to his antics. ( )