Deadline

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Ben Wolf learns during the summer before his senior year that he has a terminal blood disease. Unlike how most people would feel, Ben feels like this is right. In the doctor's office he realizes that he has never pictured himself after high school, never thought about what he would be doing in college, or even for the rest of his life. After getting this news Ben decides that he is going to live his life to the fullest, for the amount of time he has left. Ben also decides that he is not going to tell his family or friends. During his last few months alive Ben goes out for the football team, and even though he is nowhere near the correct body type for it he is an amazing football player. He goes for the girl that he always wanted to be with, and somehow he ends up with her, they even go to homecoming together and he helps her though troubling times. Ben's doctor is angry with him for not going through treatment, so he makes him visit a therapist, but his cavalier attitude runs off a few therapists. By the end of the story Ben has decided to tell the people he loves about his disease. They take it just as he would have guessed, terribly. Then in February Ben begins a downward spiral, but he keeps up hopes that he will live long enough to speak at graduation. At the very end of the story Cody, Ben's brother, reads the speech that Ben wrote and helps take care of Dallas, the girl Ben loves, and her son.

Many of Chris Crutcher's book deal with serious issues that teens battle everyday. Teachers in upper middle and high school could use these books to help their students through these issues. Also, these books can bring up some good discussion in book groups.

All of Chris Crutcher's books that I am familiar with are contemporary realistic fiction. They all deal with situations that are not only realistic and believable, but are things that many students are currently going through now. While reading Deadline I realized that this book would be perfect for high school or middle school students who are going through coming to terms with an illness themselves or an illness of a friend or family member.

Citation

Crutcher, C. (2009). Deadline. New York, NY: HarperCollins Children's Books.