Visit Chris Critcher's website to meet the author:

Chris Crutcher was born on July 17, 1946 in Cascade, Idaho. He got his bachelor degree from Eastern Washington State University in 1968. He majored in psychology with a minor in sociology. He has taught high school dropouts at Kennewick Dropout School in Kennewick, Washington. He was also a high school social studies teacher and a school administrator.

He has taught in tough inner city schools, and he says this has helped prepare him to write. He mainly writes about problems teenagers have to cope with. He has written many books, including Athletic Shorts, a collection of short stories.

Chris Crutcher was named the 2000 recipient of the Margaret A. Edward's award honoring a lifetime contribution in writing for teens. For more information on Chris Crutcher, you can read Presenting Chris Crutcher by Terry Davis.

By Naomi
TAB

KING OF THE MILD FRONTIER
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Foreface
(Couldn't decide whether it was a Foreword or a Preface)

Before anything else, let me declare that I acquired my coonskin cap through the miracle of roadkill. No single raccoon was slaughtered for the frivolous purpose of linking my autobiography to the late, great Davy Crockett. In fact, a family of raccoons regularly passes through my cat door, unchallenged, on their way to a sumptuous all-you-can-eat meal of Fancy Feast gourmet cat food and I caught them the other day surround my cap, heads bowed reverently. If you haven't seen a circle of reverent raccoons, you haven't lived. At any rate, they seemed not to begrudge my ownership.
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ATHLETIC SHORTS
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"A Brief Moment in the Life of Angus Bethune"
In these moving, unforgettable stories, the author of Chinese Handcuffs and The Crazy Horse Electric Game revisits characters from his distinguished works and introduces new, memorable characters in stories about real people facing life's real challenges. A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. An ALA Best Book for Young Adults and Best Book for Reluctant Readers.

CHINESE HANDCUFFS
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Still troubled by his older brother's violent suicide, eighteen-year-old Dillon becomes deeply involved in the terrible secret of his friend Jennifer, who feels she can tell no one what her stepfather is doing to her.

RUNNING LOOSE
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Louie, a high school senior in a small Idaho town, learns about sportsmanship, love, and death as he matures into manhood.

IRONMAN
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Bo Brewster has been at war with his father as long as he can remember. After angry outbursts at his football coach and English teacher that cost him his spot on the football team and move him dangerously close to expulsion from school, Bo gets sent to Mr. Nak's before-school Anger Management group (rumored to be populated with future serial killers and freeway snipers).There he meets a hard-edged pack of survivors whose own defenses are rigged as high as his. And there he meets and falls in love with Shelly, a future American Gladiator, whose passion for physical challenge more than matches his own.

WHALE TALK
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What a concept! Losers in letter jackets! I could show those small town jocks, those crown princes of athletics, just how much those jackets really meant!
Hi. I'm T.J. Jones, and while I love to play sports, I hate being told what to do, and that's what high school coaches do. I'd decided four years ago to go all the way through high school without one semester on any team, and I almost made it. What happened? Mr. Simet happened. He was my English teacher, one of the few folks on the faculty that I had any real respect for. In September of my senior year, he asked me for a favor. He didn't want to coach wrestling, and he'd have to unless he and I could come up with a swim team.
It sounded crazy-a swim team in a town that had only one pool, at the 24 hour health club, which wasn't even close to meeting the rules for a regulation pool, so we'd never have a home swim meet-we'd be on the road 100% of the time. I was gonna turn him down-I mean, he's a great teacher and a great human being, but this was a BIG favor, when I saw something that gave me the perfect motivation.
Two of the bigger, meaner football players were hassling Chris for wearing his dead brother's letter jacket. Chris was brain-damaged, and everyone knew it, including these two lamebrains. Wearing Brian's jacket was the only way Chris could feel close to his brother. I chased them off, and then later that day, when I went by the health club and saw Chris swim with his beautiful, natural stroke, my plan burst into my head, fully formed and ready to put into play.
I'd create a swim team of the very guys the jocks hated, the ones they saw as losers, and then watch how those jocks felt when guys they'd spit on wore the same letter jackets they did!
So who made the team? Chris, of course, Dan, the original multisyllabic genius geek, Tay Roy, a bodybuilder who decided he'd rather swim, Jackie, who's so average that he's nearly invisible, Simon, who's 5'7" and almost 300 pounds, and Andy, who's terminally angry, has a major attitude, and walks with a limp that he's never explained to anyone. (I'm a mix-white, black, and Japanese), two representatives from the top and bottom of the IQ curve, a muscle man, a giant, a chameleon, and a psycho. Would we succeed in yanking the chains of every jock and ex-jock in town, or go under for the last time?
Come to practice, take a ride on our team bus, and find out for yourself. We just might manage to surprise you-more than once!

STAYING FAT FOR SARAH BYRNES
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Daily class discussions about contemporary issues serve as a backdrop for Eric "Moby" Calhoune's attempt to answer his best friend Sarah's dramatic cry for help in dealing with a horrific event in her past. "Superb plotting, extraordinary characters and cracking narrative make this novel one to be devoured in a single uforgettable sitting".--Publishers Weekly, starred review. ALA Best Book for Young Adults.

CRAZY HORSE ELECTRIC GAME
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Willie is enjoying his life as a baseball hero when he is suddenly in an accident and his left brain damaged. Shunned by everyone, he runs away and enrolls in a special school. With the help of one special man and the people around him, he learns to cope with his condition.

STOTAN!
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High school buddies and members of the swim team Walker, Nortie, Lion and Jeff accept the challenge to participate in Stotan week--a week of rigorous swim training that pushes them beyond physical pain and tests their moral fiber, changing their lives forever.