Crash [NOOK Book]

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Overview

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


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Seventh-grader John "Crash" Coogan has always been comfortable with his tough, aggressive behavior, until his relationship with an unusual Quaker boy and his grandfather's stroke make him consider the meaning of friendship and the importance of family.

... See more details below

More About This Book

Overview

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


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Seventh-grader John "Crash" Coogan has always been comfortable with his tough, aggressive behavior, until his relationship with an unusual Quaker boy and his grandfather's stroke make him consider the meaning of friendship and the importance of family.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
Spinelli (There's a Girl in My Hammerlock) takes the brawny, bullying jock who is the villain in so many middle-grade novels and casts him as the narrator of this agile tale. Ever since first grade "Crash" Coogan has been tormenting dweeby Penn Ward, a skinny vegetarian Quaker boy who lives in a tiny former garage with his aged parents. Now that they're in seventh grade, "chippy chirpy perky" Penn becomes an even better target: not only does Penn still wear outdated used clothes, he joins the cheerleading squad. But even though Crash becomes the school's star football player and wears the most expensive togs from the mall, he still can't get what Penn has-his parents' attention and the admiration of the most gorgeous girl in school. And when his beloved grandfather Scooter is severely disabled by a stroke, Crash no longer sees the fun in playing brutal pranks and begins to realize that there are more important things in life than wearing new sneaks and being a sports star. Without being preachy, Spinelli packs a powerful moral wallop, leaving it to the pitch-perfect narration to drive home his point. All ages. (Mar.)
Publishers Weekly
Seventh-grader jock Crash Coogan has been tormenting his skinny Quaker neighbor for years, but when a stroke leaves Crash's beloved grandfather severely disabled, he begins to realize that there are more important things in life than being a sports star. "Spinelli packs a powerful moral wallop, leaving it to the pitch-perfect narration to drive home his point," wrote PW. Ages 12-up. (May) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
More Reviews (4) Fewer Reviews
Children's Literature
Penn Webb and Crash Coogan are unlikely to become friends. Penn is new to town, puny, wears clothing from the second hand store, and he is a vegetarian and a Quaker. Crash is the star running back of the school football team, bullies others, and inflicts his opinions on everyone. For many years, Crash has bullied Penn. But during 7th grade, while coping with his sassy save-the-earth younger sister, overworked parents, the "hots" for a certain cheerleader, and an ill grandfather, Crash comes into his own. Spinelli humorously tells this coming of age story.
Children's Literature
Countless books have an antihero who's a bully-jock. I don't remember ever seeing through the eyes of a character like that until I read Spinelli's book. Crash has sported this nickname since the Christmas he got his first football helmet and bowled over a female cousin who was coming to visit. As the years pass, he adds to his tough-guy image by becoming a football hero who battles his way down the field and tormenting Penn Webb, a sensitive, vegetarian, environmentalist. Crash has a thick cruel skin. When his beloved grandfather has a stroke, Crash begins to reevaluate the role he's lived for so many years. "I had always thought my name and me were the same thing," he wonders to himself, "Now there was a crack of daylight between them, like my shell was coming loose. It was scary." That crack widens until he begins to understand and like who he really is. Short chapters, humor, sports, and great characters make this a sure-win for reluctant readers and a great read aloud.
School Library Journal
Gr 5-8A winning story about seventh-grade Crash Coogan's transformation from smug jock to empathetic, mature young man. In a clever, breezy first-person style, Spinelli tackles gender roles, family relationships, and friendship with humor and feeling. As the novel opens, Crash feels passionately about many things: the violence of football; being in charge; the way he looks in shoulder pads; never being second in anything; and the most expensive sneakers at the mall. Although a stereotypical bully, the boy becomes more than one-dimensional in the context of his overworked, unavailable parents and the love he has for his grandfather, who comes to live with the Coogans and then suffers a stroke. It is because of his affection for Scooter that Crash comes to appreciate Penn Webb, a neighbor and classmate whom for years Crash has tormented and teased about his pacifism, vegetarianism, second-hand clothes, and social activism. Penn relentlessly offers friendship, which Crash finally accepts when he sees Penn's love for his own great-grandfather as a common bond. The story concludes as Penn, named by his great-grandfather for Philadelphia's famous Penn Relays, wins the school race while the elderly man looks on. Readers will devour this humorous glimpse at what jocks are made of while learning that life does not require crashing helmet-headed through it.Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME
Ilene Cooper
Seventh-grader Crash Coogan is a jock, a jokester, and a tormenter of dweeb Penn Webb. The book gets off to a hilarious start as Crash recalls his first meeting with Penn at age six. Penn, recently arrived from North Dakota, wears a button honoring that state's bird, which proclaims, "I'm a Flickertale." Let the hassling begin. From there, the plot becomes rather predictable. Crash's beloved grandfather comes to live with the Coogans, and when he suffers a stroke, Crash finds himself with a vein of empathy that wasn't evident before. At the book's conclusion, Crash and Penn are pitted against each other in a big race, but Crash, knowing that Penn's great-grandfather is there to watch, makes the ultimate sacrifice of compassion over competition. Spinelli's writing style is great for kids in this age-group, fast-paced and funny. And while it's plain where events are leading Crash, the strongly drawn characters, rather than the plot, become the focal point. Even though girls will read this, too, here's one for the boys.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780307555397
  • Publisher: Random House Children's Books
  • Publication date: 12/24/2008
  • Sold by: Random House
  • Format: eBook
  • Pages: 176
  • Sales rank: 18,990
  • File size: 2 MB

Meet the Author

Jerry Spinelli
Jerry Spinelli
Growing up, Jerry Spinelli was really serious about baseball. He played for the Green Sox Little League team in his hometown of Norristown, Pennsylvania, and dreamed of one day playing for the major leagues, preferably as shortstop for the New York Yankees.

One night during high school, Spinelli watched the football team win an exciting game against one of the best teams in the country. While everyone else rode about town tooting horns in celebration, Spinelli went home and wrote “Goal to Go,” a poem about the game’s defining moment, a goal-line stand. His father submitted the poem to the Norristown Times–Herald and it was featured in the middle of the sports page a few days later. He then traded in his baseball bat for a pencil, because he knew that he wanted to become a writer.

After graduating from Gettysburg College with an English degree, Spinelli worked full time as a magazine editor. Every day on his lunch hour, he would close his office door and craft novels on yellow magazine copy paper. He wrote four adult novels in 12 years of lunchtime writing, but none of these were accepted for publication. When he submitted a fifth novel about a 13-year-old boy, adult publishers once again rejected his work, but children’s publishers embraced it. Spinelli feels that he accidentally became an author of children’s books.

Spinelli’s hilarious books entertain both children and young adults. Readers see his life in his autobiography Knots in My Yo-Yo String, as well as in his fiction. Crash came out of his desire to include the beloved Penn Relays of his home
state of Pennsylvania in a book, while Maniac Magee is set in a fictional town based on his
own hometown.

When asked if he does research for his writing, Spinelli says: “The answer is yes and no. No, in the sense that I seldom plow through books at the library to gather material. Yes, in the sense that the first 15 years of my life turned out to be one big research project. I thought I was simply growing up in Norristown, Pennsylvania; looking back now I can see that I was also gathering material that would one day find its way into my books.”

On inspiration, the author says: “Ideas come from ordinary, everyday life. And from imagination. And from feelings. And from memories. Memories of dust in my sneakers and humming whitewalls down a hill called Monkey.”

Spinelli lives with his wife and fellow writer, Eileen, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. While they write in separate rooms of the house, the couple edits and celebrates one another’s work. Their six children have given Jerry Spinelli a plethora of clever material for his writing.

Jerry Spinelli is the author of more than a dozen books for young readers, including Maniac Magee, winner of the Newbery Medal. His latest novel, Stargirl, was a New York Times bestseller and an ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults.


From the Hardcover edition.

Read an 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.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
( 209 )

Rating Distribution

5 Star

(135)

4 Star

(39)

3 Star

(17)

2 Star

(7)

1 Star

(11)

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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 214 Customer Reviews

  • Posted April 12, 2011

    I Love this book! You have to read it!!

    I read this book on the way back from a family vacation to the beach, it was so entertaining it made the 6 hour trip feel like 5 min.! As a middle school student myself I could really relate to all the characters. When you're reading this book, you become attached to all the characters wanting to laugh with them, cry with them, and you sometimes even get mad at them. In this book the main character Crash Coogan and his best friend Mike are the school's star football players, and don't forget bullies. They think they're really something special if they're only in 7th grade and they're already a household name. Other then being show offs, one of their favorite activities are making Penn Webbs life miserable, but being a football sensation isn't all it's cracked up to be, when Crash starts to figure out that Webb has something that he will never have, and it doesn't matter how many games they win. Crash starts to learn the hard life lesson of who your true friends really are.

    5 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted October 26, 2008

    Book review for Ms. Castle

    This book I can relate to a lot. The main character, Crash, is like me in most ways. We both like football and are good at it. We have friends who are good at it too. The only thing we don't have in common is that I don't have any grandfathers and he does. His grandfather was a sailor and my grandfather was a drunkard. He has one sister and i have two but they get on our nerves. There's this boy that just moved in a couple of years back and he's kind of geekish. They always do bad things to him but he doesn't really care. This geekish guy is slowly tearing his life apart. He wants to do bad things to him but not as bad as his friend wants him to. That's tearing him away from his friend. It's tearing the girl he likes away from him because she likes the geek and not him. He's tearing his sister away from Crash by protesting against a mall. And he's about to take his spot on the track team.

    3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 1, 2012

    Nice

    Read at school for teacher litachure circles it was good

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 14, 2012

    English

    I had to read this book for english,it is really boring.Happy valentines day.bye

    1 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 7, 2012

    Pappydap

    This book is sooo hilarious. It is made for both boys and girls and is a must-read. I think the funniest part was when Crash got the idea that his grandpa would die if he didn't get a gift for him, so he gets a pair of red high heels. Even a 6 year old would find a more reasonable gift. The overall story teaches a good and enjoyable moral and would be great to recommend to preteens and teens.

    1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 21, 2012

    Anonymous

    This book is amazing I have read it many times and love it

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 16, 2012

    Awesome

    Im still in elrmentary school and my teacher read this book to the class and it was funny and awesome

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 8, 2012

    Hi

    This is a great book and I recommend it for all ages. It has a moral at the end and my grandpa knows the author from college:)

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 22, 2012

    Worth Every Penny !

    I read Crash in class. Crash was one of the most meanibg touchful warming hearting books i've read. Crash faces diffcult times in his live. Just rember look out for clues :) It's worth every penny!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 5, 2012

    Jon

    I dont care that much

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 24, 2012

    :(

    I wih these books werent so much money

    0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 18, 2012

    Really good

    This is a realy good book,but it ends so fast. I wish it was longer and didn't end so fast.

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 10, 2012

    LOVE IT!!!!

    I read this book a few months ago, and it was so great. I racamend it to any one between the ages of 8-110.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 16, 2012

    :/

    The book was ok. I often got bored and fell asleep. Somethings were realy dumb though.

    0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 16, 2012

    Blah

    Dont even bother

    0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 29, 2012

    STUPID

    I didnt really get the point of the lesson or whatever. This is a MAJOR reveiw because I love to read and know if it is a good or bad book. I am telling you to NOT read it!!!!!!!!

    0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 28, 2012

    Awesome

    I loved crash the best part is that it is made for boys and girls

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 26, 2012

    LOVE! L

    Awome!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 21, 2012

    AWSOME!!!!!!!

    If u lke ftbl ul lke Crash;)

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 20, 2012

    Book is awsome

    The best book of all time!

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