Period.8 by Chris Crutcher

I squeal when I think of Chris Crutcher creating new work. He is one of my favorite all-time young adult authors. Deadline and Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes are simply two of the best books ever to me. Crutcher's own story and his gifted way of weaving the stories of others into his books simply engages me fully. I find his work brilliant. Imagine my anticipation then when I heard about Period.8. Huge fits as a descriptor.

I really enjoyed Period.8. The writing surprised me a little, feeling more like a mystery novel than what I have noticed in Crutcher's previous writings. The typical Crutcher characters show up here: teen boy-- home life totally wonked up by a cheating dad and can't-let-hubby-go mom and school life totally connected to one main important awesome teacher named Logsdon who goes by Logs; teen girl-- key sidekick (read GIRLFRIEND) to said teen boy, total cat's meow in all categories (kind, fierce, thoughtful, dedicated, relentless, smart--the list goes on); and then there are the friends wandering around--they come in all shapes and sizes and I mean ALL. The teacher, Logs, hosts this gathering-for-students time called Period 8. In Period 8, interested students come in and talk about what is bugging them with the complete agreement that what is said in Period 8 stays in Period 8. Unfortunately that isn't quite true. Crutcher does his usual show of throwing in life and death stuff, teen angst and real life stuff, and he ties the stories together in an unusual storyline teens can find ways to deal with bullies (although in this book the dealing with bullies part is fairly brutal). Crutcher seems to know alot about bullies from his work as a social worker, and he brings out the ugly by bringing this particular bully into the picture for this book. Makes me wonder who he knows might have experienced something like this.

Ahhh, another Crutcher fix satisfied!

**Oh and guess what? Alysa told me she wants to start writing for the blog again this summer, said she will have time then. Yippeee!!!!