Sports Books for Boys: Chris Crutcher's Athletic Shorts

Ask any middle school or high school teacher: boys just don't usually read. Why? Maybe it has to do with the fact that most books aimed at young adults have girls as their "heroes." So, how do we get boys to read? Give them books with characters boys can identify with, one like Athletic Shorts written by Chris Crutcher.

Chris Crutcher's Athletic Shorts is one of my favorite books to hand a young man to read. A collection of short stories, hence the punny title, Crutcher gives his readers a sampling of sports stories, with heroes who are dealing with more than just their prowess on the playing field.

The first story in Athletic Shorts is about Angus Bethune, whose parents are both gay, and both extremely overweight, and who passed those fat genes down to their son. This extra weight works well for Angus on the football field, but creates an intimidation to members of the opposite sex. You think it's hard to ask a girl out? Try being obese in high school and having a social life. That's what Angus has to face.

Crutcher's next two stories in Athletic Shorts are of wrestlers; the first of Johnny Rivers, the best wrestler on his high school team. Which would be great except his dad was also a championship wrestler, and Johnny has to deal with his father's brand of encouragement, the type that says he'll never measure up. Johnny's sarcastic humor drives his very serious father crazy, and Johnny takes his punishments for his frivolity to heart.

But Johnny finds a way to make his dad put up or shut up by challenging him to a father-son wrestling match, to be held as a warm up sport before the school's father-son volleyball game. Crutcher's ability to write suspense is perfectly demonstrated in this battle between fun-loving Johnny and his out-for-blood father. Of course, I won't tell you the outcome!

Chris Crutcher's second wrestling story in Athletic Shorts features Johnny's best friend, Petey Shropshire, who is volunteered by Johnny to wrestle in a lower weight class so he can take on Chris Byers, an undefeated wrestler in another school. The problem is that Chris is a girl, and Petey finds himself in a bind - wrestle a girl and lose, take a ribbing; wrestle and win and it's because it was just a girl. Add to that the fact that Petey is rather shy and Chris turns out to be really pretty, and, well, you'll have to read it to see how it works out.

The remaining main characters in Athletic Shorts are Lion Serbousek, a high school senior who swims to help himself recover from being the sole family member to survive a boating accident; Jack Simpson, AKA "The Telephone Man," who is trying to sort through the racism taught him by his father; and finally, Louie Banks who learns that the best man isn't always the one who throws the football the farthest.

Chris Crutcher's stories in Athletic Shorts are written around sports, but are about so much more - discovering who you are, surviving what life throws at you, and that the best you can do sometimes is give it your best.