Crash

Author: Jerry Spinelli

Book Summary: John "Crash" Coogan, freshman football hero, is a bully. His favorite victim: "The happy little accident," from down the street, Penn Webb. The thing about Webb is he doesn't seem to notice or even care about the pranks Crash pulls on him. Being obnoxious and playing football is all Crash really cares about until Crash's grandfather, Scooter, comes to live with Crash and his family. When Scooter suffers a stroke, Crash begins to make a transformation that no one expected, least of all himself.

Book Review: Crash is a hard character to like. He's obnoxious, rude, and plain mean. He buries his mother's pansies at 5 years old. He torments his neighbor, Penn Webb, for 10 years. He never passes up an opportunity to humiliate another student. He fills Webb's shoes with mustard in school. Three quarters of the book he is an angry, selfish, arrogant, bully. Crash rarely suffers any consequences for his actions. If Spinelli is trying to teach kids a lesson, he fails. Crash becomes a good guy in the end, but his transformation happens so fast that it leaves no time to explain why.

Interest Level: Grades 4 - 6
AR Level: 3.6 (worth 4 pts.)
Lexile Level: 560

Profanity:
Damn

Potentially Inappropriate References:
Damkauf (translates to dumb head in German)

Potentially Inappropriate Behavior:
Lying
Bullying
Hitting
Fighting
Stealing
Threatening

Parental Concern Rating: 4 out of 5