"Running Loose" by Chris Crutcher

Crutcher, Chris (1983). Running Loose. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, Inc.

Challenged Book.

Seventeen year old Louie is your ordinary high school football-playing kid in a small-town high school. He's not the best at everything like his friend Carter, but he holds his own. He's lucky enough to get the attention of the high school goddess named Becky and lucky enough to have decent parents. But when life throws him some very serious situations upon him, he deals with them the only way he knows how. He asks his father, Norm and his adopted sage, Dakota for advice.

I am not a sports fan (sorry!) and much less do have any sports ability, so I figured this book was not for me. Chris Crutcher changed my mind about the book by page number two. I felt like I wanted to actually meet Louie, because Crutcher made him so very endearing without any hint of mushiness. The story is very engrossing all the way through, and the serious issues being introduced were ones that I thought very appropriate for young adults, or anyone with a hint of maturity for that matter, to be exposed to. I liked the fact that this book could be recommended for any reluctant-reader, especially boys, because of its believability and its ties to sports and life in general.