Deadline

by Chris Crutcher

Chris Crutcher has done it again! Deadline has absolutely everything a great read should have--a heart wrenching, thought provoking plot, lots of humor, a quirky turn of phrase, a sweet if unlikely love story, an incredible football season, characters you can really care about, and an ending that had me trying to swallow a lump in my throat the size of Texas and blinking back tears for the last 30 pages of the book. Ben Wolf finds out after a sports physical that he has a terminal blood disease, and that he has about a year to live. This book is all about how Ben decides to live his life for that year. I think that every student at Lorena High School should read this book. A small warning: language is an issue, but it was appropriate and realistic. Yet another Texas Tayshas book for this year.

--reviewed by D. Sams