Author Study
Laura Collins
LIB 732
Photo: Kelli Halls, June 2007
chriscrutcher.com
“I grew up with a lot of really
well-meaning people telling
me a lot of lies that felt good
at the time, but they ended
up coming back to bite me in
the ass. Too often, the adults
in your life don't tell you the
truth --- they don't tell you
what the world is really like.
So a lot of what I do when I
write is describe the world as
I see it, rather than how I
might like it to be."
(teenreads.com)
Image from www.chriscrutcher.com
“…I do write about the things about which I'm
passionate. I work with people who have been
savaged for who they are. If they're ever going
to make it, they're going to have to learn how
to stand up for themselves. That starts with
telling the truth as you see it.”
(teenreads.com)
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Born in Dayton, Ohio on
July 17, 1946
Raised in Cascade, Idaho
(small logging community of 900)
Father a WWII Air Force bomber
pilot
Mother a homemaker and
“functional alcoholic”
Older brother excelled academically;
Chris strove to be a “C” student even though
he was capable of better grades.
Chris did not love to read as a kid; he preferred TV
(Jenkinson)
Image from www.chriscrutcher.com
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1968 - Graduated from Eastern Washington State College with a
B.A. in psychology and a minor in sociology (chriscrutcher.com)
Earned a teaching credential and taught both primary and
secondary school in Washington and California
(chriscrutcher.com)
1972-1981 – Director of Oakland’s Lakeside School, a private, nonprofit school and “the toughest place [he] had ever been”
(Jenkinson)
1981 – moved to Spokane, WA, looking for a less emotionally
draining job
1982 - became coordinator of the “Spokane Child Protection Team,
a group of people who work on the toughest child abuse cases”
(Jenkinson), and also became a therapist at the Spokane
Community Health Center (chriscrutcher.com)
Margaret A. Edwards Award
American Library Association – 2000
“ ‘His stories bring to life the contemporary teen
world, including the darker side. Readable,
humorous, immediate, and unforgettable,
Crutcher’s stories give hope to young adults
struggling with the eternal questions of who
they are and where they belong,’ says Joan
Atkinson, Edwards Award committee chair
(Carter).”
Celebration of Free Speech and Its Defenders
Award
National Coalition Against Censorship
November 11, 2005
“I go to the edge but I write about real people. I
owe it to these people to give an honest depiction
of what really happened. If I tone down the story,
if I don’t tell a the story in their language, that
diminishes them and their stories (Follos).”
National Intellectual Freedom Award - 1998
National Council of the Teachers of English
(teenreads.com)
Crutcher has received
many awards and
nominations. For a
complete list, go to:
Image from www.chriscrutcher.com
http://www.chriscrutcher.com/content/blogcategor
y/73/62/
“One of the reasons I write about older teenagers
is that they’re on the edge of having to live their
lives themselves. Those initial decisions they make
are really important (Carter).”
Crutcher’s Senior Yearbook Photo:
chriscrutcher.com
“Having a character stand up for himself is one of
the recurring themes in my writing. There is no act
of heroism which does not include standing up for
oneself… (Lesesne).”
Baby Chris with his dad, a WWII bomber pilot.
chriscrutcher.com
Running Loose
1983
“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.”
(chriscrutcher.com)
"Crutcher's talent is evident in Running Loose, in
which Louie learns about love, death, sportsmanship,
and integrity as well as football."
~ Children's Literature
Image from www.chriscrutcher.com
ALA Best Book for Young Adults
New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age
Booklist Editor's Choice
ALA Best of the Best Books for Young Adults
SLJ Best of the Best Book 2000
Nominee, 1988-1989 Iowa Teen Award
Nominee, 1995-1996 ILF Rosie
2003 Mock Printz Survey for 1983
“I didn’t know there was such a thing [as a YA
novel]. I’d just spent 10 years in the toughest
school in Oakland, and so I wrote it in that
language (Jenkinson).”
Stotan!
1986
“In the final swimming season at Frost High School
Coach Max II Song offers his small but talented
team the gift of self-discipline in the form of Stotan
Week--a grueling four-hour-a-day, nonstop test of
physical and emotional stamina designed to bring
them to the outer edge of their capabilities. The four
young men accept the challenge-and something
none of them could have predicted is set in motion.
Stotan! is a humorous, sometimes heartbreaking
story about making sense of chaos, about falling in
love when it's not in the cards, about friendship and
commitment, about life and death.”
(chriscrutcher.com)
"A fine coming-of-age novel...Crutcher's novel more than moves
and entertains; it teaches. It teaches young people about
responsibility, about courage and heroism, and ultimately about
life itself. Stotan! is very, very, good."
~ School Library Journal
ALA Best of the Best Books for
Young Adults
School Library Journal Best of the
Best
SLJ Starred Review
ALA Best Book for Young Adults
Nominee, 1989 Colorado Blue
Spruce Award
Image from www.chriscrutcher.com
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Based on Crutcher’s personal experience under
a “lunatic” swimming coach at Eastern
“The word, Stotan, a cross between ‘stoic’ and
‘spartan,’ embodies the concept of singleminded determination (Jenkinson).”
“It was an incredible bonding thing that none
of us would have done alone but nobody could
stop doing as long as everybody else was doing
it (Jenkinson).”
The Crazy Horse
Electric Game
1987
“Willie is a top athlete, the star of the
legendary game against Crazy Horse
Electric. Then a freak accident robs him
of his once-amazing physical talents.
Betrayed by his family, his girlfriend,
and his own body, Willie's on the run,
penniless and terrified on the streets,
where he must fight to rebuild both his
body and his life.”
(chriscrutcher.com)
"Without mincing words, [Crutcher] composes harsh realities
with images that sometimes take your breath away-and
sometimes make you belly-laugh in astonishment and delight
.... The story is a poignant telling of courage, the struggle to
survive life on all levels, and an examination of values once
held dear."
~ Children's Literature
ALA Best Book
SLJ Best Book
1990 South Dakota YARP Best Books List
Image from www.chriscrutcher.com
Chinese Handcuffs
1989
“When Dillon Hemingway is forced to witness
his brother Preston's suicide, his life
understandably seems to fall apart. His quest
to make it whole again involves Stacy Ryder,
Preston's girlfriend, who is left with more than
a memory of Dillon's dead brother, and
Jennifer Lawless, a star high school basketball
player with a secret too monstrous to tell and
too enormous to keep.
His antagonists are a vicious cycling gang, a
single-minded school principal, and Jennifer's
father, a brilliant lawyer with a chilling
disregard for human sensitivity.
Chinese Handcuffs is a story about a time when
life seems too overwhelming to confront. It is
also a story of courage and acceptance, told
with power and sensibility.”
ALA Best Book for Young Adults
ALA Best of the Best Books for Young Adults
1991 South Dakota YARP Best Books List
(chriscrutcher.com)
Image from www.chriscrutcher.com
Athletic Shorts
1991
These six powerful short stories chronicle
bits of the lives of characters, major and
minor, who have walked the rugged terrain
of Chris Crutcher's earlier works. They also
introduce some new and unforgettable
personalities who may well be heard from
again in future books. As with all Crutcher's
work, these are stories about athletes, and
yet they are not sport stories. They are tales
of love and death, bigotry and heroism, of
real people doing their best even when that
best isn't very good. Crutcher's
straightforward style and total honesty have
earned him an admiring audience and made
readers of many nonreaders.
(chriscrutcher.com)
"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. “
~Publisher's Weekly
Image from www.chriscrutcher.com
ALA Best of the Best Books for Young Adults
ALA Best Book for YA
ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers
SLJ Best Book
SLJ Best of the Best Book
1992 Michigan Library Association Best Young Adult
Book
Nominee 1992-1993 Maine Student Book Award
Nominee 1995 Garden State Teen Book Award
Nominee 2004 Isinglass Teen Read Awards
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
1993
“When Sarah Byrnes was three years old, her condition
became synonymous with her surname. Her face and
hands were badly burned in a mysterious accident, and
her father refused to allow reconstructive surgery. She
developed a suit of cold, stainless steel armor to defend
herself against the taunts of a world insensitive to her
pain. You enter into Sarah Byrnes's world on her terms,
or you don't enter.
Enter Eric Calhoune--Moby to his friends. Eric passed
through his early years on a steady diet of Oreos and
Twinkies and root beer floats, and he sports the girth to
prove it. Because of their "terminal uglies," he and Sarah
Byrnes have become true masters in the art of
underhanded revenge directed at anyone who dares to
offend their sensibilities.
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes is a darkly funny,
suspenseful novel about friendship, fear, and making
the best of a bad situation. Once again Chris Crutcher
slaps us in the face with compelling questions that
demand dignified answers.”
(chriscrutcher.com)
Image from www.chriscrutcher.com
ALA Best Book for YA
SLJ Best Book for YA
American Booksellers Pick of the List
California Young Reader Medalist
1995 Joan Fassler Memorial Book Award
ALA Best of the Best Books for YA
Publisher's Weekly Starred Review
1994 South Dakota YARP Best Books
Nominee 1995-1996 Iowa Teen Award
Nominee 1995-1996 SC YA Book Award
Nominee 1996 Young Reader's Choice Award
Nominee 1996-1997 ILF Rosie
“As a counselor listening to really tough stories, I was
inspired by how strong and courageous families are…
There really was a 3-year-old girl who was
deliberately burned when her stepfather pressed her
face against the wood stove to get back at her mother.
There are random things that turn your head (Follos).”
"...an emotional look at the helplessness of isolation and the redemption that
comes from reaching out. Crutcher offers no easy answers --- no happily ever
afters. But he does offer hope. He celebrates heroics, one brave step at a time...a
riveting read --- for teens, and adults who love them."
~Teenreads.com
Ironman
1995
“Bo Brewster has been at war with his
father for as long as he can remember.
Following angry outbursts at his football
coach and English teacher that have cost
him his spot on the football team and
moved him dangerously close to
expulsion from school, he turns to the
only adult he believes will listen: Larry
King.
Ironman is a funny, sometimes
heartbreaking story about growing up in
the heart of struggle. It is about standing
up, getting knocked down, and standing
up again. It is about being heard--and
learning to listen.”
(chriscrutcher.com)
Image from www.chriscrutcher.com
ALA Best Book for YA
New York Public Library Books for the Teen
Age
SLJ Best Book
American Bookseller Pick of the List
ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers
California Young Reader Medalist
ALA Best of the Best Books for YA
Horn Book Fanfare
Parent's Choice Silver Honor
1996 South Dakota YARP Best Books
2003 Mock Printz Survey for 1996
Nominee 1998 Garden State Teen Book Award
Nominee 1997-1998 SC YA Book Award
“’If you ever want to see how something works, look at it
broken (Ironman).’ I never get over the curiosity that goes
with looking at things broken and I never stop learning
things about myself (Carter).”
"[Crutcher is] a terrific storyteller with a wonderful handle on
what it's like to be an adolescent."
~New York Times Book Review
"With its highly charged intensity channeled into riveting
prose, an array of eccentric and strong characterizations,
and dramatic plot climax...Ironman is a combination of the
psychological and the sports novel at their best."
~Booklist
Whale Talk
2001
“A group of misfits brought together by T. J. Jones (the J is
redundant) to find their places in a school that has no
place for them, the Cutter All Night Mermen struggle to
carve out their own turf. T. J. is convinced that a varsity
letter jacket--unattainable for most, exclusive, revered, the
symbol (as far as T. J. is concerned) of all that is screwed
up at Cutter High--will be an effective carving tool. He's
right. He's also wrong.
Chris Crutcher is in top form with a cast of characters-adults, children, and teenagers--fighting for dignity in a
world where tragedy and comedy dance side by side,
where a moment's inattention can bring lifelong heartache,
and where true acceptance is the only prescription for
what ails us.”
(chriscrutcher.com)
Image from www.chriscrutcher.com
2005 ALA Popular Paperbacks for YA
2002 ABC Children's Booksellers Choices
Award
2002 Washington State Book Award
2002 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award
2002 Outstanding Sports Book Award/YA
ALA Best Book for YA
TLA Tayshas List
New York Public Library Books for the
Teen Age
ALA Top 10 Best Books for YA
Book Sense 76 Pick
"Crutcher's superior gifts as a storyteller and his background as a working
therapist combine to make magic in Whale Talk. The thread of truth in his
fiction reminds us that heroes can come in any shape, color, ability or
size, and friendship can bridge nearly any divide. A truly exceptional
book."
~Washington Post
"[Crutcher] uses well-constructed characters and quick pacing to examine
how the sometimes cruel and abusive circumstances of life affect every
link in the human chain. A heartwrenching series of plot twists leads to
an end in which goodness at least partially prevails."
~Booklist
" Crutcher is at his darkest but also his funniest here, and the book conveys
his most timely message—forgiveness, not revenge."
~VOYA
"Crutcher's wry wisecracking is in full force in WHALE TALK's hero, T. J.
Jones, whose good heart and flair for the sarcastic make him one of my
favorite teen book characters ever."
~Teenreads.com
King of the Mild Frontier
2003
An “Ill-Advised” Autobiography
“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….
I began writing this autobiography in response to
the question all authors hear more than any
other, and few answer adequately: "Where do
you get your ideas?" (I've had little luck with,
"Pocatello, Idaho," as an answer, and not much
more with, "The same place you get your.") The
truth is, I get my ideas from my life, and I
thought it might be fun and interesting to
highlight some of those times and places
(chriscrutcher.com).”
Images from www.chriscrutcher.com
"Seldom has the fraught and difficult time of adolescence had so
fine a chronicler as Chris Crutcher, the multi-award-winning
author of some of the best known and most loved young adult
novels, including Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, Whale Talk,
Ironman, and Running Loose. Now he's written a memoir, King of
the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography (Greenwillow,
2003), in which he tells the story of his formative years in Cascade,
Idaho. Fans of Crutcher's novels know that he writes winsomely in
a tone that is both humorous and heartbreaking. It's no different in
his memoir, except that here he shows himself willing to discuss
some difficult issues in his own life, including an overly
demanding father, an alcoholic mother, the effects of being
burdened with a terrible temper, and no athletic ability. From the
cover - a buck and gap-toothed kid grinning goofily - to the insight
the book gives into his own novels, this is a must-read for anyone,
of any age, interested in young adults and their literature."
Nancy Pearl, Washington Center for the Book
KUOW Public Radio's "The Beat" -- September 22, 2003
(www.chriscrutcher.com)
Deadline
2007
"Emotionally spare but deeply touching, the relationship
between Ben and his brother will resonate with many
readers, while others may find the several strong father
figures comforting. Secondary characters add humor and
balance...,Crutcher uses dark humor and selfdeprecation effectively to avoid maudlin situations, and
teens will appreciate the respectful tone of the work.“
—Chris Shoemaker, New York Public Library
From School Library Journal
“Deadline is glorious. Funny, spiritual, honest, and
profound--there's some adjectives for you. Thank you,
thank you for this major contribution to YA literature."
~Patty Campbell, author, YA literature expert, editor at
Scarecrow Press, children's book reviewer for the New
York Times
(chriscrutcher.com)
Image from www.chriscrutcher.com
Angry Management
2009
"Fans will be entranced by Angry
Management’s melding of beloved Crutcher
characters, brought back to us in three
gripping novellas. Crutcher continues to
amaze me with words so humorous and
simple and yet so crushing that I find myself
laughing aloud while recoiling from the ache
in my heart. Those who are new to
Crutcher’s inimitable style will surely want
more of the characters that long-standing
fans have come to think of as friends.
Angry Management may be Crutcher’s best
work yet."
Dr. Stephanie D. Reynolds
McConnell Children's Literature
Conference
University of Kentucky/ School of Library
and Information Science
(www.chriscrutcher.com)
Image from www.chriscrutcher.com
“I usually end up dragging the 1964 Chris
Crutcher, or parts of him, into the era in which I'm
telling the story. At least I drag out his sensibilities.
I also spend a lot of time with teenagers and with
parents of teenagers in my work (teenreads.com).”
“In therapy, I'm listening to my client's rendition of
their lives. I'm listening to their stories. I may be
digging into it, asking where this came from, where
that's going; but as a therapist I'm just receiving,
exploring, playing around with what is.
As a writer I do just the opposite. I ask myself the
same questions I would ask a client, same things I
would have to discover from them; but I determine the
outcome. I do take my stories from the confusion or
the angst of teenagers, so you could say my stories
may be a response to therapy (teenreads.com).”
“I hope sometime, after I'm dead, somebody hands
some kid my book and the kid says why don't you
give me something that is in my time, that I can care
about? There is a place for the classics, but you have
to be ready for them. If you're not, you can kill the
beauty of a classic by forcing it (teenreads.com). ”
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird
“The sad thing is, nobody learned from our
responses to give us more books like that.
Not to brag, but if somebody had given me
my books in school, I'd have read every one
of them. I'd have read writers like Chris
Lynch, Rob Thomas and Lois Lowry, but
they weren't around. And even if they were,
nobody was going to give me their
books. Nobody even gave me Catcher in the
Rye, and I would have read the hell out of
that. They weren't giving us current stuff,
because they were too afraid we might start
thinking for ourselves (teenreads.com). ”
Cover image from www.barnesandnoble.com
As a kid, Chris lived in a small town and went to a
small high school.
“In a place like Cascade, if I didn’t turn my
homework in, my parents knew by the time I got
home. My dad was chairman of the school board
and the superintendent of schools (also the
principal and part-time math teacher) was one of
his better friends. I didn’t get away with much
(Jenkinson).”
Chris had no choice about being an athlete.
“When your school has only 103 kids in the top
four grades, you go out for sports or they beat the
hell out of you.
You figured it was more fun
to be beat up with a helmet on
than with a helmet off. In that
sense, I was an athlete
(Jenkinson).”
Image from www.chriscrutcher.com
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Pat Conroy
Kurt Vonnegut
Tim O’Brien
Christopher Paul Curtis
Terry Davis
(Lesesne)
Because Crutcher’s topics are controversial: “child abuse
and neglect, racism, school athletics, and sexual
orientation” (Martin), he is a frequently challenged and /
or banned writer. Two of his books (Athletic Shorts, Running
Loose) are on ALA’s Most Banned Books list (Martin).
As a result, he has become an advocate for free speech and
abolition of censorship.
“My intent in writing a story is never to shock or
undermine. It is to tell a truth – a small truth – as I know it.
It is the job of the fiction writer to reflect the world as she
or he sees it rather than to depict it in some wishful way
(Martin).”
Banned!
Image from www.chriscrutcher.com
“You have to tell the truth and
you have to be protective about
your characters. Truth is best told
in its native tongue, so I let my
characters speak for themselves.
To take any words away because
someone finds them
objectionable would be like
denying someone the right to
free speech (Lesesne).”
“It’s risky business letting people
have their own lives, particularly
if they are our children (Carter).”
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Crutcher used to “borrow” his older brother’s
perfect book reports and submit them as his own
work.
Crutcher on school: “What I wanted out of school
was out of school. I had school phobia (Follos).”
He worked hard to be a “C” student on purpose.
“Along about junior high, I started letting my
parents get the idea that I was somewhat brain
damaged (Jenkinson).”
Crutcher believes “humor is an amazing healer
(Carter).” His heroes are often smart and sarcastic.
I wanted to read an author whose work dealt with
areas I generally don’t gravitate toward. Crutcher’s
narrators are male athletes (I am no sports fan!) and
they deal with gritty social issues I am not drawn to
reading about because they are so disturbing. I wanted
to stretch myself as a reader and found that Crutcher’s
work is gripping, funny, and enjoyable. I read Whale
Talk, The Crazy Horse Electric Game, Staying Fat for Sarah
Byrnes, and Chinese Handcuffs; of those, I most enjoyed
Whale Talk because Crutcher’s style was clearly more
sophisticated than in some of his earlier works. I also
enjoyed the wit of T.J. Jones, his narrator. I now have a
new author to recommend.
“Our lives are made up of a series of losses and
our grace can be measured by how we face those
losses, and how we replace what is lost. What I’m
talking about there is the process of grief, which is
one of the most important things we do as humans
– taking the risk of losing one thing so that we can
go on to the next (Blasingame).”
Author, Chris Crutcher - Homepage. Web. 29 Nov. 2009. <http://www.chriscrutcher.com>.
"Author Profile: Chris Crutcher." Teenreads.com. Web. 29 Nov. 2009.
<http://www.teenreads.com/authors/au-crutcher-chris-2.asp>.
Blasingame, James, and Chris Crutcher. "INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS CRUTCHER." Journal of
Adolescent & Adult Literacy 46.8 (2003): 696. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 3 Nov.
2009.
Blasingame, James, and Chris Crutcher "AN INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS CRUTCHER." Journal
of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 51.6 (2008): 519-520. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web.
3 Nov. 2009.
Carter, Betty "Eyes Wide Open. (Cover story)." School Library Journal 46.6 (2000): 42. Academic
Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 3 Nov. 2009.
Follos, Alison M. G. "Author Profile: The "3 C's" of Chris Crutcher." Library Media Connection
25.3 (2006): 40-43. Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts with Full Text.
EBSCO. Web. 3 Nov. 2009.
Jenkinson, Dave "Chris Crutcher: YA author bats 4 for 4 on.." Emergency Librarian 18.3 (1991):
67. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 3 Nov. 2009.
Lesesne, Teri S. "Banned in Berlin: An interview with Chris Crutcher." Emergency Librarian
23.5 (1996): 61. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 3 Nov. 2009.
Martin, Phil, et al. "Writers who make a difference." Writer 117.1 (2004): 21. Academic Search
Premier. EBSCO. Web. 3 Nov. 2009.
Zaleski, Jeff, and Jennifer M. Brown "PW Talks with Chris Crutcher." Publishers Weekly 248.11
(2001): 92. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 3 Nov. 2009.