1. Chris Crutcher

2. Career
Who is Chris Crutcher? Born on July 17, 1946 in Dayton Ohio to a WWII bomber pilot and a homeaker, Crutcher grew up in Cascade, Idaho, a logging town north of Boise.  He graduated from Eastern Washington State College -- now Eastern Washington University -- with a BA in psychology and sociology.  He later earned his teaching credential and taught primary and secondary school in Washington State and California.

3. Childhood
If you could breathe,” Crutcher says, “you could play.” In fact, the recruitment of nearly every male adolescent in Cascade was necessary to populate a viable team. His brother John was an authentic jock and a stellar academic. But even without athletic prowess, Crutcher participated in football, basketball and track.

4. Working
When he wasn’t at school or practice, Crutcher often manned the pumps at the family service station, where he learned the value of hard work, the ecstasy of junk food, and the true reach of his father’s powerful intellect. “I saw him as a God,” Crutcher explains, “but he was 6’5” so I also saw him as BIG.”

5. Current Work
Crutcher still works as a therapist and child protection advocate. His life experiences in rural Idaho, in urban Oakland, in education and in mental health keep his fiction rooted in real life. “Crutcher writes with heart-wrenching realism,” according to People Magazine with “superb plotting, extraordinary characters and crackling narrative,” Publisher’s Weekly said.

6. A coming-of-age story or novel
is memorable because the character undergoes adventures and/or inner turmoil in his/her growth and development as a human being.

7. Coming of Age
Some characters come to grips with the reality of cruelty in the world--with war, violence, death, racism, and hatred--while others deal with family, friends, or community issues.

8. Awards
The American Library Association has named eight of his young adult books, to date, “Best Books for Young Adults,” and four of his books appeared on Booklist’s Best 100 Books of the 20th Century, compiled in 2000 – more than any other single author on the list. Crutcher received the ALAN Award in 1993, the NCTE SLATE Intellectual Freedom Award in 1998, the Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 and Writer Magazine’s Writers Who Make a Difference Award in 2004.

9. Selected Works by Chris Crutcher
Running Loose, 1983; Stotan!, 1986; The Crazy Horse Electric Game, 1987; Chinese Handcuffs, 1989; Athletic Shorts: Six Short Stories, 1991; The Deep End, 1991; Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, 1993; Ironman, 1995; Whale Talk, 2001; King of the Mild Frontier, 2003; The Sledding Hill, 2005, Deadline, 2007. 

10. Cascade, ID 1960