These six stories from acclaimed author Chris Crutcher are about athletes, but are not simply sports stories.

Here he presents characters from some of his best–loved novels, as well as creating some unforgettable new personalities, in tales of love, death, bigotry, heroism, and coming of age.

Ages 11+

ANNOTATION

A collection of short stories featuring characters from earlier books by Chris Crutcher.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In six tense, exciting short stories, athletes face up to more than sports in tales of love and death, of bigotry and heroism, of real people doing the best that they can, even when that best is not enough.

These stories feature new voices as well as characters from Chris Crutcher's acclaimed popular novels, including Stotan!, Running Loose, and The Crazy Horse Electric Game. Here are the moments that change lives forever.

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

Horn Book

One need not have read Crutcher's novels to appreciate the young men within these pages. They stand proudly on the own.

Publishers Weekly

If the stereotype of the ``bonehead jock'' is ever to be defeated, it will be at Crutcher's hands. In these six short stories, he and his athlete protagonists take on such weighty issues as racism, homophobia, sexism and the teenager's essential task of coming to terms with his parents. At the same time the author makes the world of sports compelling enough to engage even the most sedentary readers. Three of the stories revolve around characters featured in Crutcher's The Crazy Horse Electric Game , including the memorable eccentric known as Telephone Man. Also starring in his own story is Lionel Serbousek, the orphaned artist and swimmer of Stotan! In the book's final tale, Louie Banks (from Running Loose ) is befriended by a young man with AIDS and must cope once again with the untimely death of a loved one. The stories' locales--mostly small towns in Montana and Idaho--are vividly evoked, and make a satisfying change from the well-known big cities and bland suburbs where so many YA novels are set. Ages 12-up. (Oct.)

Children's Literature - Susie Wilde

Crutcher is a sports translator, transforming sports into an idiom for life, making the spirit and power of sports understandable to enthusiasts and non-enthusiasts. For most of his growing up, sports were Crutcher's life. Athletic Shorts is a collection of short stories which feature some of Crutcher's former protagonists in new stories and fascinating new characters in an abundance of sports settings.

School Library Journal

Gr 8 UpThe stereotype of jocks as insensitive dullards is challenged in stories that grapple with the big questions of life as well as with athletic prowess, told with good-natured aplomb and gritty honesty. (Sept. 1991)