Deadline

In a little over a week I will be at the Boothbay Literacy Retreat where I will get to see Chris Crutcher speak, and I can hardly wait! I decided to choose Deadline as one of my YA Lit course selections to become familiar with another one of his novels. While I saw many similarities between another one of Crutcher's novels and his short stories that I read earlier this year, this was also unique in its own right. As I loved with his other books, it had multiple layers, a strong-willed and creative main character, and humor.

I love the front cover, both the picture and the question, "What if you only had one year to live...and you knew it?" The question instantly got me thinking about what I would do, as well as wondering what Ben, the main character would do. Right before the start of Ben Wolf's senior year his doctor calls him after his routine cross country physical. Although he wanted to meet with his parents, Ben goes alone and finds out that he has a terminal illness and most likely has a year to live at the most. Much to his doctor's chagrin, he refuses treatment and decides that he will not tell anybody what he discovered. He rationalizes that treatment will not prolong his life by much and will make the time he has less enjoyable, and he wants to live a "normal" life without everyone feeling sorry for him. However, as time goes on he questions whether this is the best way to deal with the knowledge or if he owes it to those who love him to let them know the truth.

He starts his senior year with a bang, going all out, deciding to play football instead of cross country and learning as much as he possibly can. Many people are surprised by his actions, but they do not suspect the truth. Many relationships are explored throughout the book, and I especially loved the scenes with him and his younger brother, Cody. Because Ben was so small, his mom decided to have him start school a year later to see if he would get bigger, so he is in the same grade level as Cody, who calls him little big bro. Others in the school call him Little Wolf. 

Although Ben is dealing with heavy issues throughout the whole book and I was on the verge of tears at different points along the way, there was also a lot of humor. Rather than slacking off his senior year, he decides to go all out. This is most evident in one class. Much to his U.S. government/current events teacher's dismay, this includes a lot of questioning that made me smile. I never knew what would come out of his mouth next. 

On a side note, I have mentioned before that I always love mentions of local communities. This book takes place in a small town in Idaho. They even play one of their big football games on BSU's blue turf. I think my students would also enjoy this geographic connection. We were able to go onto the football field at a college visit this spring. 

In other connections the ending scene made me think of Lisa Schroeder's (another Pacific Northwest author) Chasing Brooklyn and the relationship between Magdalena and her cousin in the movie Quinceañera. It was fun to think about which of the two connections would end up being most like what will happen after the book ended. 

Now I want to go over to Mrs. DeRaps' post to re-read her thoughts on Deadline. I saw them earlier this spring but did not want to read too much as I knew I would want to read the book eventually. I always love to see what others think about the books I have read.