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: Breaks down traditional barriers of young adult literature
Review: Although this is definitely a novel that will appeal more to a male audience, I was impressed with the storyline that held me captive until I was finished with it. This novel is helping to break the ground into re-defining young adult literature. The characters are believable and their situations real. Any adolescent could read this book and find a connection with one of the characters.

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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: I LOVE CHRIS CRUTCHER!
Review: Chris Crutcher has a gift for breathing life and believability into his characters and this book is no exception. The characters are vintage Crutcher -- they face tragic deaths, there are gay characters and even characters with less, although readily recognizable issues.

Chris Crutcher is a gifted writer and many folks will find a literary friend in Lion. This book is a treat.

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Summary: Stotan!
Review: Chris Crutcher tends to throw every problem known to man into his books, with a particular focus on domestic abuse. However, despite being overbearing in some of his books, the ideas in Stotan! seem fresh and real. Friendship and the toughness of Stotan Week lead the four boys to knock down challenges in their life, together. This book is an amazing story about what it means to be a true survivor. It's not just swimming fast...This is probably one of the best of Chris Crutcher's books, and one that never fails to inspire me.

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Summary: I love Chris Crutcher!
Review: Crutcher's books are so good, I just got through reading Athletic Shorts and Lionel's story in that one is my favorite. I love every character he creates and I think he is a truly exceptional writer.

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Summary: Chris Crutcher Shows His Awsome Writing Skills Once Again!
Review: For a high school report I choose to read Chris Crutchers "Stotan". This story was far more one of the best stories I've read since "Of Mice And Men". It's a story of a group of teenagers who sign up for an afterschool activity they know nothing about. This week will test there strengths physically and emotionally, and will cause them to be closer than ever.

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Summary: Are you a STOTAN!
Review: I think that this book is a fantastic book for young teens. It deals with the everyday problems teenagers have in real life. It is also a very touching story on how much these kids will be abused, threatened, teased, and pushed around before they take revenge. Walker, Nortie, Lion, and Jeff are best friends. They take the challenge of Stotan week- a series of grueling physical and emotional tests of endurance. They do race after race to test there ability, but is that the only way to become a Stotan? According to one of the guys its not. Hes been keeping a Stotanic story a secret for a long time. This is a great action book and a sad story at the same time. So are you a true Stotan?

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Summary: BEST EVER. TEACHES GREAT LESSONS.
Review: i THINK THAT THIS IS THE BEST BOOK I HAVE EVER READ. MR. CRUTCHER HAS A WONDERFUL TALENT IN HIS WRITING. THIS BOOK TAUGHT ME LESSONS IT WOULD HAVE TAKEN YEARS FOR ME TO LEARN. I THINK PEOPLE OF ALL AGES SHOULD READ THIS NOVEL.

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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.