Stotan!

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Summary: Swim with the Stotans!
Review: A review by Zach

In this book 4 friends, Walker, Nortie, Jeff, and Lion are swimmers at Frost High in Spokane Washington. They are all good friends and they come across many challenges as they go through their last year of high school. Like when Nortie had become abused by his father and Walker, Jeff, and Lion came and took him from house. There are also many other issues like racism.

This book was perfectly written with the eight amounts of suspense, comedy, and drama mixed in. In many parts it will keep you right on the edge of your seat wanting to read more and more. It is not a book you can easily put down. It did move a little slow in some parts, but not to the point that it would make you bored. It also may have been better If it were longer. The end left me with many unknown things and wanting to learn what would happen next.

Overall it was an excellent book and is one of my favorites. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good book, though this book would probably appeal more to teenagers over the age of twelve. I would also recommend any other Chris Crutcher book especially Iron Man or The Crazy Horse Electric Game, they all posses the same great qualities.

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Summary: Stotan! An Educator's Perspective
Review: As an educator I am always looking for some excellent young adult books to engage the readers in my classroom. Stotan! contains two of the elements that I look for when choosing a young adult book: a believable narrator students can connect to and plenty of exciting situations that teach students valuable lessons about life.

The first important element in a young adult book is that the book must have an authentic adolescent narrator. Because these books are written by authors who are no longer in their teens, it is important that the author knows how to make the characters sound like real adolescents in order to connect with the reader. In this area, Stotan's author Chris Crutcher excels. While reading the novel, I felt as if I was directly plugged into the thoughts of the narrator of the story, a high-school swimming captain named Walker. During the novel, I got to experience Walker's reactions and feelings about his wish to make his senior year at high school a memorable one, his ambivalence about girlfriends and his dating struggles, his secret passion for a female swimmer and his emotional connections to his four best friends.

Another important element of Stotan! is that the book contains exciting events that teach valuable lessons. Stotan! follows the experiences of four best friends who are members of the Frost High School swimming team. The novel begins in November of their senior year when they are introduced to the concept of being both a Stoic and a Spartan, or 'Stotan,' and ending with the last swimming meet of their high school career. During this time these friends undergo grueling tests of both physical and emotion endurance. They learn how to stay together and support each other even when confronted with physical abuse, terminal illness, and confusion about their future. While the situations and past histories of some of the characters may seem a little unrealistic, an example being the character of Lion living in his own apartment since his sophomore year, the comradeship and relationships among the young men is both realistic and touching. But because of some of the unbelievable or exaggerated circumstances of this novel, I would only recommend it to younger teenagers from thirteen to fourteen years old. So, if you are an educator who is looking for a novel to use in your freshman English class, I would recommend Stotan! The novel has a believable narrator, the story contains exciting situations and it subtlety teaches the importance of supporting and caring for your friends without being preachy.

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Summary: extra credit Stotan review
Review: I thought Stotan was a little bit boring in the beginning, but the more I read the more interesting it was. The book had a few interesting and suspenseful parts. The book had some funny parts also. Stotan was about a group of five friends on the swimming team, encountering many common and uncommon problems. The more you got to know the characters the better the book got. There were some good lessons in the book. It taught you that no matter how bad you think your problems are there is probably someone out there with worse problems, and that you should not put off doing things with your friends, because they may not be there tomorrow.
The book was enjoyable and was fun to read in some parts. Overall, I didn't really care for the book but other readers may enjoy reading Stotan, and it did have some good lessons for teenagers.

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Summary: extra credit Stotan review
Review: I thought Stotan was a little bit boring in the beginning, but the more I read the more interesting it was. The book had a few interesting and suspenseful parts. The book had some funny parts also. Stotan was about a group of five friends on the swimming team, encountering many common and uncommon problems. The more you got to know the characters the better the book got. There were some good lessons in the book. It taught you that no matter how bad you think your problems are there is probably someone out there with worse problems, and that you should not put off doing things with your friends, because they may not be there tomorrow.
The book was enjoyable and was fun to read in some parts. Overall, I didn't really care for the book but other readers may enjoy reading Stotan, and it did have some good lessons for teenagers.

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Summary: Enjoyable Reading
Review: My English teacher gave us this book as required reading because Chris Crutcher was coming to speak at our school and she wanted us to have a feel for his writing style, and for once I am glad she assigned it. This is one of the few required reading books that I have ever enjoyed. It is interesting, quick reading that most people can relate to. The plot is creative and intriguing, it really makes you think. I would recommend this book to almost anyone.

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Summary: Chris Crutcher is the best author in print.
Review: Stotan is an incredible book! It's about 4 friends, Walker, Nortie, Lion, and Jeff, who swim together as well as experience life together, culminating in a test of their athletic and emotional abilities known as Stotan Week. Chris Crutcher deals with heavy issues such as domestic abuse, racism and cancer with grace, sensitivity and even humor. I reccomend this and all of Crutcher's books.

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Summary: Stotan Review
Review: Stotan was a book about four friends, Nortie,Walker,Lion and Jeff. Throughout this book they go through many hardships that a lot of teens today go through. The four friends were on a swim team together and for their season conditioning, their coach created "Stotan Week." They went through some really tough times during stotan week, but that would only prepare for the other hard times to follow!!!

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Summary: STOTAN!
Review: STOTAN! is an exceptional book for teen and adult readers alike. Chris Crutcher is an amazing writer, who, as a counselor, has obviously had quite a bit of interaction with troubled teens. This book is about 4 friends who endure stotan week together; not only building up their own physical strength and stamina, but also learning about frienships and relationships, and dealing with cancer, racism, and physical abuse. Chris Crutcher does a fine job of writing a book about 'tougher' issues, yet keeping the book amusing. If you enjoyed this book, I strongly reccomend Crutcher's other books, including "Chinese Handcuffs".

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Summary: Reality Stretch
Review: The book 'Stotan' starts off with a swimming team practicing to become Stotans or a cross Stoic and a Spartan. There is a wild love twist between the main character, Walker, Deveene, and Walker's best girl friend Elaine (girl friend as in a friend who is a girl). The main theme of the book to me and many others I know is that you can't always fight what you up against but you just have to go with the flow.
When I read the book 'Stotan' it felt pretty blah I mean other than telling people on how to live his or her life there is nothing exciting about the book. One of the reasons I disliked the book is that it just combines way to many issues, conflicts, and themes into on tiny 183 paged book. The book takes reality and stretches it a little to far for my taste, so that is why I only give the book a total of three stars.

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Summary: Stotan
Review: The book Stotan is a very exciting book.I beleive it was the best book I have ever read. It takes place in a little city involving 4 boys and 1 girl as the main characters. The four boys r swimmers at Frost High School. Their friend Elaine ( the 1 girl) was a swimmer but got burnt out at the age of 17. The boys end up forfeiting every meet because they dont have enough swimmers. Their coach Max posts a notice for "Stotan Week" a week long event over christmaas break getting them to become better swimmers. They show up the first day and Max works them hard, when he thinks they are not performing well he sends them to a roped off section of the pool called the torture lane. There they do sprints in the water, pushups and situps continously until he says so. They end up going to Montana for a meet and Walker ends up qualifying for state out of state. At the end of one of the events Jeff has a hard time getting out of the pool and needs Norties assistance. Jeff ends up gettting taken away in an ambulance. He is later diagnosed with lukemia. To find out what happens next read this book.