STOTAN! by Chris Crutcher

Plot Summary:

In the book STOTAN! By Chris Crutcher, we travel through the lives of four swimmers who, attending high school, are also the four boys that make up the swim team at Robert Frost High. When their swimming coach Max suggests that the team signs up for STOTAN! Week, a week he has created for the swimmers the entire first week of Winter Break, they think about it seriously. Not knowing what exactly they’ll be getting there selves into, the whole team signed up, anticipating a grueling workout from their coach. But during STOTAN! Week, the four boys actually become closer emotionally, and begin to share intimate parts of their lives with each other that, after knowing each other since childhood, the four friends still did not know about each other. Through and after the STOTAN! Week, the boys continue to bond, and grow close to each other, revealing many issues such as abuse, racism, sex, drugs, and many issues between, where they both learn more about each other, and more about themselves.

Setting:

The setting of this story is in the North West United States. The team participates in many swimming competitions in and near Billings, Montana, which is their closest opponent.

Character Description/Development:

WALKER- Walker is the main character. He is the one who narrates the story through his ‘journal’. Walker is the team captain, and a true leader. He tries to support all of his teammates and friends in everything that they do, and isn’t shy about trying to be kind. But he also struggles internally with the issues in his life, such as, his brother being a “druggy” and his parents being “old” for the age they had him at.

He develops throughout the book by learning to support his friends no matter what, even if doing that puts him in scary situations, he learns that being honest with people is the best decision, and also he learns that life is too short to dwell on little things.

JEFF- Jeff is the oldest in the group, and also the most mature in some categories. He, at the end of the book, is diagnosed with a blood disease. I think after his history of being a “tough guy” it makes it hard to accept that he is slowly becoming more and more weak. I think that it is especially hard too since he was in the Marines.

He develops by accepting that he will die, and that he is becoming weaker by the day.

NORTIE- Nortie is an insecure senior and a “follower” who is dependant on other people, and he is also a worry-wart. Throughout his life, he has basically been forced to cower away from his father in his own house, which has molded his personality to point of how old he was in the book.

Nortie develops by being able to tell his father “no” basically, and that he can stand up to his father. He also learned that it is good to let things out instead of bottling them up, and that friends can be your chosen family.

LION- Lion is yet again another “tough guy” in this book. His parents died, leaving him enough money to get along through high school alone, and he has his own place. He doesn’t often talk about his parents. He is also the “extreme” one of the group, who is easily empowered and feels strongly about an issue once he is empowered. Lion is also not afraid of setting his own trends.

Lion develops throughout the story by having to deal with his parent’s death, and also addressing (in a very drastic way) the issues of racism presented in the school.

EVALUATION

EVALUATION:

Ideas

I think that the author’s ideas were very clear, and he had very good themes. He talked a lot about racism, abuse, and other issues that effect people in the world. Crutcher also, throughout the book, tried to describe the way the character’s felt about each topic.

Organization

I think that the author organized the book very well. I think that possibly some sentence structure could have been paid more attention to, but overall it was okay. I think that something that might have helped the reader would have been to put it in complete chronological order, and also mayeb put more events in the story.

Voice

The author used voice well. I think that putting into the journal form really helped you know that he was trying to make it sound like the author, or that the words, were coming from a teenager, or someone we could “relate” to.

Word Choice

I think the author, with the time period I think he was going for, used very good words. I think that sometime, actually a lot of time, I think that he edited himslef (with using curse words atleast) by just saying other expressions, which in many teens isnt true. Im not exactly saying that he should have sworn more, but it definatly didn’t sound like a teen on the swearing aspect, and very censored for a junior’s journal.

Sentence Fluency

I think that the author had decent sentence fluency. I think that throughout some of the book, he could had worded things differently, or could have structured the sentence better. I think that he was sometimes unclear, and I, several time, had to re-read sentences to try to fully understand them, which Im sure that if someone else tried to read this, they could also have the same troubles as me, or possibly more.

Conventions

I think that author used all the spelling and grammer correctly, and also had a somewhat good flow of the words.

Presentation

I think that the author, or whomever chose the cover of the book STOTAN! Possibly should have made it maybe look a little more dramtic, like possibly the scene of Jeff in the hospital bed, or Nortie’s beaten face, or something more symbolic about something besided swimming, something with a little more intensity. I think that on the inside of the book though, the presentation was good, and having it in a journal form was a pretty okay idea.

ISSUES: ABUSE

ABUSE:

• Child abuse is reported on an average of every 10 seconds and three children die every day as a result of such abuse

• 3,000,000 cases of child abuse and neglect were reported in this country last year, and 2,000 children died as a result of that abuse.

• Children who are abused are more likely to have behavior problems, become teen parents, juvenile delinquents, drug and alcohol abusers, and child abusers themselves

• Each week, child protective services (CPS) agencies throughout the United States receive more than 50,000 reports of suspected child abuse or neglect

• In 2002, 2.6 million reports concerning the welfare of approximately 4.5 million children were made.

• 896,000 children were found to have been victims of abuse or neglect—an average of more than 2,450 children per day.

• More than half (60 percent) of victims experienced neglect, meaning a caretaker failed to provide for the child's basic needs

• Fewer victims experienced physical abuse (nearly 20 percent) or sexual abuse (10 percent), though these cases are typically more likely to be publicized.

• The smallest number (7 percent) were found to be victims of emotional abuse, which includes criticizing, rejecting, or refusing to nurture a child.

• An average of nearly four children die every day as a result of child abuse or neglect (1,400 in 2002).

• Children younger than 1 year old accounted for 41 percent of all abuse-related deaths reported in 2002; three-quarters (76 percent) of those killed were younger than 4.

• Many reports (44 percent) came from nonprofessional sources, such as parents, other relatives, friends, and neighbors. Anonymous reports accounted for 10 percent of all reports in 2002.

I think that all these example really show how common abuse is, and how serious of a topic the abuse really is, especially in today’s world. I think that Crutcher was smart to include this in his book, because it gives kids who read it an opportunity to learn more about the abuse. Although I think that he was smart to include it in his book, I also think that a better way to have included it would be treating it more like a serious issues than he did. By reading the information above, I think that Crutcher probably done some research and found out how common child abuse is, and should have incorporated more into his book that it is wrong, serious, and can result in death.




WORK CITED:

Crutcher, Chris. Stotan!

"National Child Abuse Statistics".Childhelp.Online. Internet. 15 Jan. 2008. Available: http://www.childhelp.org/resources/learning-center/statistics

http://www.childabuse.org/about%20child%20abuse.html

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/childabuse.html

http://www.sfcapc.org/

http://pediatrics.about.com/od/childabuse/a/05_abuse_stats.htm

FIRST BLOG

STOTAN!! Okay, this book was decent, I suppose. Honestly, at first it sucked. There wasn’t much action going on, and there wasn’t real interesting topics being presents until past page one hundred. I think that if I hadn’t been reading it for school, I would have given up on it. After page one hundred though, things kinda started getting more interesting. It wasn’t one of those “I never wanted to put it down” books, but it was still more exciting than a dictionary. One , well I suppose TWO, of the elements that were the most exciting in my opinion were things like Walker’s confusion between Elaine and Devnee, and also Nortie’s fathers abuse, and Nortie’s ‘family history’. I think that when they were at Lion’s house and Nortie told Walker, Jeff, and Lion about his dad during the “Stotan stories” it really showed all of them bonding and such. I personally thought that Jeff’s story was a little confusing at first (the one from where he is in the marines) but at the end it got better. I found that story quite ironic, especially towards the end when Jeff begins to slow his swimming, then eventually not being able to at all.

When Jeff eventually gets diagnosed with his “blood disease” I found it really strange that during the whole thing Crutcher never said the actual NAME of the disease. That actually kinda made me think that Crutcher just didn’t really want to do any research about blood diseases or something, and just made Jeff not want to talk about it or whatever. I think that if I got diagnosed with some strange “blood disease” or something like that that would make me become terminally ill, I would not tell my friends to stay away. I actually think that I would want to be surrounded at all times, especially like my boyfriend and best friends, but Jeff just kinda lets Coleen and his friends visit when he says instead of whenever. Like, if I knew I were dying in let’s say…two months, I think I’d do shit like ride roller coasters and spend all my money and do fun stuff.

Have any of you ever been close to death? I never really have been. I mean, when I was born I had the umbilical cord wrapped around my neck and I guess (my parents said) I was purple and such and I wasn’t breathing, but I obviously started again. But in my family, both my brother and my dad almost died, which really sucked. My brother almost drowned at the Wisconsin Dells and my dad’s heart failed and had to have emergency surgery. I guess that doesn’t really have to do with Jeff’s Leukemia or whatever “blood disease” he has but I think that it has stuff to do with death. I can’t even remember how many funerals I’ve been to. I’ve cried at none of them, because I guess at first I wasn’t really sad. I felt bad that I couldn’t cry or whatever, but I think that the dead people would have wanted the people attending the funeral not to cry.

Now I’m just kind of rambling just because it really needs to fill space. Like I was saying though, I actually think its kinda a-hole-ish of Jeff to just say “hey, don’t come visit me.” Because obviously his friends want to see him before he dies, because if one of your friends just all the sudden died, you’d regret not being with them more…..and I think Jeff needs to realize that.

SECOND BLOG

This book kind of reminded me of like, a superhero movie or something. It really covers a lot of themes
Like…
1. Racism
2. Abuse
3. Drugs
4. Sex
5. Honesty
6. Exercise
And I really think that Crutcher should have stuck to one theme, because it’s frustrating that he’s trying to make this an awesome foretelling insightful book, but its only like two hundred and fifty pages, instead of like, some trilogy on life lessons or something. But it reminds me of a superhero book because everyone is like, BUFF and STRONG and has NO EMOTIONS (that they show on the outside) and all that shtooff(made up word) Anyways, some of it is all “DEATH, DOOM, AND DESTRUCTION!" But other times during the book its like “I WANT TO KILL MYSELF¨ and then other parts are all snow Whitish like, ”LETS SING WITH THE ANIMALS!¨ so I think its really confusing that he going from such boring moments from half the book to really intense moments (like death) in the second half of the book. And I mean, I guess I know that having the mood switch throughout the book is supposed to keep interesting, but I think that he added too much action too late, and eventually it just became so intense that you didn’t even find it interesting anymore.

Actually, something that I find commonly happening in books is that a lot of the authors out there really like to somewhat torture their characters, especially in Young Adult Literature. I mean like, a few books (or at least from my reading experience) have happy endings and stuff, but a lot seem to have authors who want there characters to suffer so immensely until the end of the book, when it eventually because a little much. I don’t think the Crutcher really did that a whole lot in this book, because he didn’t make Jeff die or anything, but he did torture him in the way that Jeff had everything in the world he pretty much wanted, and then it was taken away because of his “blood disease” Also with Jeff, there was his shipwreck, caused by him getting expelled because he beat up a student teacher that was hitting on his girlfriend. Other examples of him wanting to torture his characters were …

• Nortie’s abuse from his father; O’Brian beating on him because of his black girlfriend; his brother’s suicide; his mother’s inability to leave his father; and his inability to cope with reality and the world around him(being intimidated easily)
• Lion’s crappy apartment; the fact that his parents died; and he’s really easily bothered by things, and those things make him do rash things which end in him in trouble
• Walker’s parent’s age(they’re really old); his brothers drinking; his brother’s drug use; his brother’s drug dealing; and always having to haul his brother’s ass out of biker bars.

I think it’s kind of sad that he ends up torturing all his characters….

THIRD BLOG

Okay, so in this blog I think I’m going to mainly focus on two things: Crutcher’s lack of creativity and what I think is going to happen in the future.

First off: I’m assuming all you guys have talked to other people in different groups about their books and what its about and all that fun stuff, but have you realized how SIMILAR they all are? Some even use like, the same names! I think that completely shows Crutcher’s lack of creativity. Now I know that we’re supposed to not be criticizing too harshly (Like I’ve been doing in every blog so far) but I really think that the man could have at least come up with different names for the other books, instead have like, a “LION” in every book and stuff! I mean, it’s self-explanatory if the books are sequels to each other, or are all part of one series, but you would think that he could at least dazzle his fans for (whatever reason they’re fans) by choosing more exciting and complex name rather than “LION” “JEFF’ “NORTON” “ELAINE” “WALKER” I mean, granted “Walker” and “Norton” aren’t that common of names, they’re still not exciting!! I mean, I have cousins with names like “Esden, Kaeler, and Brevin” and I really don’t think all authors have to get that weird of names, but really, do you guys not agree that if you began to read a book with the main character’s name being “BOB” it wouldn’t quite as appealing as something like “Keaton” or whatever? It just strikes me as odd that Crutcher could come up with any better names, or any more names, so he just used boring ones throughout all his books.

Second off: What I think is going to happen in the future, and how I hope things would work out if there were a sequel…

One of the first things that I would happen in the sequel if I wrote one would be Walker finally breaking up with Devnee. I don’t think it’s fair to her, and I found it really sad when Walker described their make-out sessions, and said that recently he had had to fake it. I think that is absolutely horrible, mean, and really rude. Like, if I ever found out a guy I had been dating was faking a make-out with me I would be appalled. So in the sequel, within the first chapter I think I’d have Walker take Devnee to Dolly’s or whatever, and just “be straight” with her by like, saying something like “Hey, I don’t really like you anymore….umm…I like someone else. Well, I don’t really like someone else, I am just attracted to her…Elaine…and I think it’s really wrong of me to be dating you when I’m attracted to someone else…” And just have him say something like that, and I would make Devnee be sad at first, then understanding.

Another thing I would make sure happened in the sequel would be something dramatic, like Nortie’s mom ending up in the hospital, or something more dramatic, and having that finally convinces her that she should no longer live with him. I think this would effect the book in two ways…ONE- it would add drama and action to the play and TWO- it would finally resolve the conflict Nortie’s has about worrying if his mother would be alright.

Lastly, one of the things I would make happen is to have Jeff die. I know it sounds cruel, but it need to happen eventually cause all the “I’m sick guys...” stuff is starting to wear on forever. I would make that happen because then they three living ones could do some more “STOTAN BONDING” and that would increase the emotional level the book has. I guess that was Kind of corny, but whatever, it would sell;)

P.S. Have you guys ever heard of Apocalyptica? Cause if you haven’t, you should check ‘em out, they’re a really good band…