Teen Lib.

Stotan is a very fun and important book, by Chris Crutcher, one of the premier young adult authors out their.  It is about four boys on a high school swim team together and how their adventures during one hellish week of swimming during Christmas break will help them weather some very hard times together.  If you haven’t read anything by Chris before this would be a great book to start with.  It is exciting, funny, and touching.  As with all of Chris’s books, this one seems to have a great grasp of who teens are and how they interact with each other.  If you want to learn more about this book check out the reviews at Amazon or go to Chris Crutcher’s Website, but for now here is a book talk I wrote for it.

Stotan Week,

Dec 17 to Dec. 21,

8 A.M. to Noon Daily,

Volunteers only,

Looking for a few good men,

SEE MAX.

This is the sign that greeted Walker, Jeff, Lionel, and Nortie after early morning workout on Nov 5^th.   Max Il Song is the Montana born and bread Korean Cowboy who coaches the Frost high school swim team.  Max won’t say anything about this stotan week, but the guys can already tell its going to be some week.  Knowing Max as they do they know that this week is going to push them to the utmost limits physically and it will probably be aimed at teaching them all some sort of lesson or another.  Despite their reservations they all decide to volunteer and to spend that week living in Lionel’s near condemned apartment for the week.  However this decision leaves them wondering what is a stotan, what is this week going to be all about, and will they come out of it in one piece.  For the answers to these questions and many more pick up Stotan, by Chris Crutcher.