Louie Banks has it made.

He's got a starting spot on the football team, good friends, and a smart, beautiful girlfriend who loves him as much as he loves her.

Early in the fall, he sees all his ideas of fair play go up in smoke; by spring, what he cares about most has been destroyed. How can Louie keep going when he's lost everything?

ANNOTATION

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

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Louie Banks has the world by the tail. It's his last year in high school; he has wheels, a starting spot on the football team, good friends, and the girl of everyone's dreams. If he can stay away from Boomer Cowans long enough to graduate, he's got it made. But the world suddenly turns and snatches Louie by the tail, and it just won't let go. His visions of sportsmanship and fair play go up in smoke by the second game of the season; his expectations of life are shattered by spring.

Many of Louie's wounds are selfinflicted; others, the result of a cold random throw of the cosmic dice. Either way, his road to manhood has become cluttered with seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Running Loose is a story about that time in a boy's life when he is suddenly expected to act like a man-to be accountable for the things he does and to react reasonably to the craziness around him. Sometimes Louie does; sometimes he doesn't.

About the AuthorChris Crutcher grew up in Cascade, Idaho, and now lives in Spokane, Washington. He is the critically acclaimed author of six novels and a collection of short stories for teenagers, all chosen as ALA Best Books. In 2000, he was awarded the American Library Association's Margaret A. Edwards Award, honoring his lifetime contribution in writing for teens. Drawing on his experience as an athlete, teacher, family therapist, and child protection specialist, he unflinchingly writes about real and often-ignored issues that face teenagers today.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

In this first novel, a boy's senior year in high school goes awry when he's kicked off the football team for taking a stand against the coach, and his girlfriend is killed in a car accident. PW found this ``a tightly plotted, compelling talecompassionate, funny and sensitive.'' (12-up)

Children's Literature - Susie Wilde

Crutcher's sports training has aided his writing. " I always thought that a lot of my great ideas and strengths came from competing. I used to find that place where I'd get in the zone and not get tired, and I feel that when I'm really interested in a conversation or psychological concept. I see myself as a writer in very much the same way I see myself as an athlete. When I get into a good story, then the story will carry itself." Crutcher's talent is evident in Running Loose, in which Louie learns about love, death, sportsmanship, and integrity as well as football.