Athletic shorts : six short stories / by Chris Crutcher.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Foreword (p. 1)
• A Brief Moment in the Life of Angus Bethune (p. 3)
• The Pin (p. 27)
• The Other Pin (p. 51)
• Goin' Fishin' (p. 81)
• Telephone Man (p. 105)
• In the Time I Get (p. 125)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

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.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

School Library Journal Review

Gr 8 Up‘The 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) (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Gr. 8-12. That Crutcher's derived all but one of the principal characters found in these stories from his novels won't restrict this to his full-length-fiction fans. The best story, "A Brief Moment in the Life of Angus Bethune," has, in fact, nothing to do with prequels or sequels at all, though it has been published previously. In it Angus, a wonderfully humorous, self-deprecating fat kid from an alternative family (two sets of gay parents), gets a well-deserved, longed-for moment with the girl of his dreams, who turns out to be not only beautiful, but also nice. In "The Telephone Man," which calls up a character that originally appeared in Crazy Horse Electric Game, emotionally disabled Jack, whose belt full of phone equipment constitutes his identity, is rescued from a vicious Chinese gang by a black classmate. The incident puts lie to the racist rhetoric Jack's father spouts, leaving Jack loving his dad but no longer believing him. Not all the stories are as strong as these two, but Crutcher knows teen issues and how kids think and talk. His themes--father-son friction, insecurity, friendship--have great YA appeal, his plots are straightforward, and he mixes poignancy and humor in just the right proportion to keep readers involved. And they will also appreciate the insights he supplies about himself in the collection's introduction and in story headnotes. ~--Stephanie Zvirin

Horn Book Review

Common issues and themes in young-adult literature are explored from an unconventional perspective in these short stories featuring, for the most part, characters readers will recognize from Crutcher's popular novels. The dialogue is quick and scorching, and the characterizations are powerfully drawn. Crutcher is a discerning reporter of the inner life of adolescent males. From HORN BOOK 1991, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

Six short stories, five of them about characters from Crutcher's novels. The protagonists are involved in sports, but the real theme is growing--grappling with something tough and finding the courage to carry on. For instance, in ``A Brief Moment in the Life of Angus Bethune'' (originally published in Connections, 1989, edited by Don Gallo), huge Angus has been elected Senior Winter Ball King as a joke: he can't dance. Too proud to stay away yet terrified to go, his problems are complicated by his secret love for the elected queen and by the fact that kids have always teased him because both his parents are gay. With wry courage, Angus achieves a triumph that should lighten any reader's spirits. The so-vulnerable Lionel (Stotan!) tries desperately to forgive the boy who caused his parents' and brother's deaths; less successfully, ``Telephone Man'' (The Crazy Horse Electric Game) is slowly loosening the heavy racism placed on him by his beloved father. In ``The Pin,'' Johnny wrestles his father in a can't-win battle neither wants to win--or lose; ``The Other Pin'' is about a wrestler in love with the girl he's supposed to beat at an upcoming match. Finally, ``In the Time I Get,'' Louie Banks (Running Loose) overcomes another kind of prejudice when he befriends a stranger who has AIDS. An involving group of stories, somewhat uneven in focus but all thought-provoking and discussable. (Fiction. 12-15)