Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes

Author: Chris Crutcher
Publisher: Laurel Leaf
Year Published: 1993
Cost:$12.99 (Hardcover)
Other Bibliographic Information:
ISBN:0-06-009489-3
ISBN13:978-0-06-009489-8
Word Count:62,066
Reading Level:5.2
Interest Level:7-12


Plot summary:

In Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, Chris Crutcher focues on two of his main characters, Eric Calhoune and Sarah Byrnes. These two identified with each other and became friends for one simple reason: their teenage peers consider both physically reprehensible. Eric is obese, and Sarah's face and hands are extremely disfigured from severe childhood burns. Eric Calhoune and Sarah Byrnes have found solace and support with one another as best friends. Sarah Byrnes suddenly gone catatonic in a Spokane mental ward. The book uncovers this mystery by uncovering Sarah Byrnes's past.


Issues for Being Challenge: Some of the issues why this book have been banned or challenged in the past are issue of abortion, religion, references to masturbation, physical and emotional abuse, mild profanity, and an attempted suicide.


Evaluation:

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes is a book that confronts bullies and presents heroes who fight continuing battles. The characters are well rounded. The author, Chris Crutcher does an incredible job extracting the best of each character. I enjoyed seeing how each of the character interact with one another. I noticed that there themes of pain and retribution, love and abandonment, and the struggle to understand one's self. These themes are something that young and older readers will be able to relate with their own experiences. This book is so captivating because of the author's ability to show both the pain and the humor of being an outsider.

Reader’s annotation:

Crutcher has created not only a topnotch thriller, but a tender story of friendship and loyalty that transcends the "young adult" genre. He has written a book that defies the limits of age. It is a book that covers all the bases and speaks to strength of the human spirit, the heroics of the human heart.

Review Excerpts:

"[A] transcendent story of love, loyalty and courage...Superb plotting, extraordinary characters and crackling narrative make this novel one to be devoured in a single unforgettable sitting."
--Publishers Weekly, Starred

"...strong on relationships, long on plot, and has enough humor and suspense to make it an easy booktalk with appeal across gender lines."
~Booklist

"...A story about a friendship with staying power, written with pathos and pointed humor."
~School Library Journal

"Against a swimming backdrop Crutcher places the issues of shame, narrow-mindedness, and abuse. Once the story takes hold you move along at such a rapid clip that by the end you're holding on for dear life."
~Children's Literature

"Crutcher's teen-appealing style...keeps the colorfulness quotient high, and kids will appreciate the triumph of the underdog protagonists."
~Bulletin/Center for the Children's Book

"Once again, Chris Crutcher plunges his readers into life's tough issues within a compelling story filled with human compassion...handles difficult topics such as abuse, abortion, and religious rigidity with his characteristic intelligence, humor, and empathy."
~ALAN Review


Awards and Honors:

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


Author Website:http://www.chriscrutcher.com/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/

Book Trailer Clip from YouTube:

Chinese Handcuffs

Author: Chris Crutcher
Publisher:Greenwillow Books
Year Published:1989
Cost:$12.99 (Hardcover)
Other Bibliographic Information:
ISBN:0688083455
ISBN13: 978-0688083458
Reading Level:5.2
Interest Level:9+


Plot summary:
A young adult novel by Chris Crutcher. This is about Dillon Hemingway and Jen Lawless, both are amazing athletes and are well-known by their fellow classmates. However, both have haunting family lives. They both find comfort in each other. Dillon runs to lose himself, to forget about his family falling apart; to sort out his feelings for Stacy, Preston’s girlfriend; and to stop thinking about the secret that his friend Jennifer has just entrusted to him - a secret about herself and her step-father, T.B. Dillon can’t keep running from these problems and he knows it. With the help of Jennifer’s basketball coach and his father, Dillon learns to accept his problems and take responsibility for the only thing he can control - himself.

Issues for Being Challenge:

The issues in the book that are likely to be challenged are: Issues of Rape, Incest,unplanned pregnancy, teen suicide, gangs, drugs, and child molestation are covered in this book.


Evaluation:
I believe that this novel would be an excellent novel to teach to a group of struggling readers. Though the problems that the characters face are extremely complex and many students would not have “life” experience in them, I feel that all the student would be able to relate to the confusion that the characters feels. This would help to increase their social confidences as well as text confidence. Relationships change and people put an end to the grief they have suffered. I guarantee that this book will keep you reading until the very end when you see how all the problems are resolved.


Reader’s annotation:

The characters have suffered through many hardships, which become revealed in this book. So if you want to find out what happens to Jennifer, Dillon, or Stacy, you’ll have to read this book.

Review Excerpts:

"Crutcher, author of the well-received The Crazy Horse Electric Game , Running Loose and Stotan! , has written a weighty, introspective novel. Because of the book's complex structure, and because the issues are so gritty and realistic, parts of the resolution become melodramatic in contrast."
~ Publishers Weekly

"...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

"There are enough plots here to fuel a soap opera for a year... Characters keep asking, 'can we talk' and then prattle on... Dillon is too much in control of himself and the other characters to be believable. The ending...is contrived. There's a place in fiction for teenage problems, but surely not all in one novel." Robert E. Unsworth, Scarsdale Junior High School, N.Y.
~School Library Journal

"Dillon Hemingway faces a lot of problems. . . . Given this plethora of woe...it's surprising that the story is as effective as it is. While all the problems don't really add up to a plot, the characterization is sound and consistent, and Crutcher's writing has both insight and fluency.
~Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Awards/Honors Recieved:
ALA Best Book for Young Adults
ALA Best of the Best Books for Young Adults
1991 South Dakota YARP Best Books List


Author's Website:
http://www.chriscrutcher.com/content/blogcategory/68/57/