Ironman

Bibliographic Info

Title: Ironman

Author: Chris Crutcher

Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: 1995

ISBN: 978-0060598402

Plot Summary

Bo Brewster is starting out his senior year with a record three suspensions in the first two months of school.  This time is serious.  If he doesn’t make amends with the football coach/English teacher, he’s looking at home tutoring with the most boring teacher alive.  A journalism teacher with a kindred spirit takes it upon himself to negotiate Bo’s return to school.  The sentence, as it turns out, is for Bo to attend an anger management class.  The class is notorious for being full of thugs, but Bo doesn’t have much choice.

The honesty of the anger management kids, along with the anger management teacher, Mr. Nakatani show Bo a way through the self-destructive mess he’s making of his life.  He learns just how bad things can be, and are, for the kids in his class.  He sees how his struggle with his father is actually giving undeserved power to the bullies in his life.  His new found perspective makes it possible for him to put his energy into training for a triathlon.

Critical Evaluation

Picking up a book about sports and emotional frustration may not sound like it would have wide appeal.  This book is different.  Through the main character’s love of pushing himself to the ends of his physical limits, it’s possible to understand the passion that drives some athletes to greatness, and what makes a sport worth playing.

The author does a remarkable job of capturing a masculine voice in the story.  While it might seem obvious that a male author would be an authority on the male viewpoint, in this case, the writing seems to open up another world of perception, like a person might see if they suddenly woke up a bee, seeing in ultraviolet.

Reader’s Annotation

Bo Brewster called his English teacher an asshole.  Under his school’s three strikes and you’re out rule of suspension, Bo may be out of school for good.  When a good-hearted teacher takes it upon himself to advocate for Bo, Bo finds his way back in is going to be through an anger management class full of felons.

Author Info

Chris Crutcher was born on July 17, 1946 in Dayton, Ohio.  He grew up in Cascade, Idaho, a small logging town.  He studied psychology and sociology at Eastern Washington State College, which is now Eastern Washington University.  He later earned a teaching certificate and taught in Washington and California.

Crutcher served as the director of an alternative K-12 school in Oakland, California.  The school was racially diverse a place of last resort for many students.  Crutcher claims that the students he worked with there provided a lot of inspiration for the characters in his stories.

Crutcher moved to the Northwest after around ten years at the Oakland school.  He worked as a child advocate and began writing.  He continues to act as a therapy consultant.    He has written more than a dozen books and several more short stories.

Crutcher, C. (n.d.). Crutcher bio. Retrieved April 26, 2010, from http://www.chriscrutcher.com/content/blogcategory/20/9/

Genre

Sports Fiction

Curriculum Ties

Health

Book Talking Ideas

Discuss:  Have you ever had a teacher who you just couldn’t get along with?  How did you handle it?

Reading Level

15+

Challenge Issues

Deals with difficult issues, such as child abuse, abandonment.

Challenge Responses

Active Listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

Teacher mentioned the author.  Searched for his books.