Crash Paperback - 1997

Summary

First line

My real name is John.

From the jacket flap

Now available in paperback, Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli's hilarious, poignant story of cocky seventh-grade superjock Crash Coogan.

Excerpt

My real name is John. John Coogan. But everybody calls me Crash, even my parents.

It started way back when I got my first football helmet for Christmas. I don't really remember this happening, but they say that when my uncle Herm's family came over to see our presents, as they were coming through the front door I got down into a four-point stance, growled, "Hut! Hut! Hut!" and charged ahead with my brand-new helmet. Seems I knocked my cousin Bridget clear back out the doorway and onto her butt into a foot of snow. They say she bawled bloody murder and refused to come into the house, so Uncle Herm finally had to drag his whole family away before they even had a chance to take their coats off.

Like I said, personally I don't remember the whole thing, but looking back at what I do remember about myself, I'd have to say the story is probably true. As far as I can tell, I've always been crashing--into people, into things, you name it, with or without a helmet.


From the Hardcover edition.

Media reviews

"Readers will devour this humorous glimpse of what jocks are made of." --School Library Journal, starred review "Spinelli packs a powerful moral wallop, leaving it to the pitch-perfect narration to drive home his point."--Publishers Weekly

Citations

• School Library Journal, 05/01/2005, Page 51