Customer Reviews

Stotan!

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As an educator I am always looking for some excellent young adult books to engage the readers in my classroom. Stotan! contains two of the elements that I look for when choosing a young adult book: a believable narrator students can connect to and plenty of exciting situations that teach students valuable lessons about life.

The first important element in a young adult book is that the book must have an authentic adolescent narrator. Because these books are written by authors who are no longer in their teens, it is important that the author knows how to make the characters sound like real adolescents in order to connect with the reader. In this area, Stotans author Chris Crutcher excels. While reading the novel, I felt as if I was directly plugged into the thoughts of the narrator of the story, a high-school swimming captain named Walker. During the novel, I got to experience Walkers reactions and feelings about his wish to make his senior year at high school a memorable one, his ambivalence about girlfriends and his dating struggles, his secret passion for a female swimmer and his emotional connections to his four best friends.

Another important element of Stotan! is that the book contains exciting events that teach valuable lessons. Stotan! follows the experiences of four best friends who are members of the Frost High School swimming team. The novel begins in November of their senior year when they are introduced to the concept of being both a Stoic and a Spartan, or Stotan, and ending with the last swimming meet of their high school career. During this time these friends undergo grueling tests of both physical and emotion endurance. They learn how to stay together and support each other even when confronted with physical abuse, terminal illness, and confusion about their future. While the situations and past histories of some of the characters may seem a little unrealistic, an example being the character of Lion living in his own apartment since his sophomore year, the comradeship and relationships among the young men is both realistic and touching. But because of some of the unbelievable or exaggerated circumstances of this novel, I would only recommend it to younger teenagers from thirteen to fourteen years old. So, if you are an educator who is looking for a novel to use in your freshman English class, I would recommend Stotan! The novel has a believable narrator, the story contains exciting situations and it subtlety teaches the importance of supporting and caring for your friends without being preachy.

This book was required for me to read in a college literature class and I was not looking forward to it because I do not enjoy reading sports books but I was surprisingly wrong. This book is a very fast read and is very poignant. There are 5 very relatable characters that each have unique stories that draw the reader in. Even though the parts about the swimming were a little foreign to me, they were not too confusing to throw you off. I could find people that I know that are in each of these characters and I am female so it is not just a boy book. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants a good book and a wonderful story.

I am a high school English teacher and read this to my class of struggling readers. They liked this less than Deadline ... but I liked this book. Not quite as emotionally gripping as deadline ... but great especially if you are into swimming

I bought this book when I was still in high school, read it, then forgot all about it. I liked the story well enough, because it was about swimming. But years later while I was at university, I pulled this book out again and realized that there was much more to this story than swimming -- that, in fact, if there ever was a course on friendship, this book could be a primer. This is a Young Adults book, but even now that I'm out of university, I still like to read Stotan! once in a while to remind myself of what really matters in life.

The book Stotan! by Chris Crutcher, is aimed toward young adults. The book is about four high school students who are on the swim team together. Their coach, Max, has them go through a rigorous week of training known as Stotan week, which will push them to the edge of their physical capabilities. But being a Stotan becomes more than just being a tough swimmer. A Stotan is a cross between a Stoic and a Spartan, and he shows no pain. During the Stotan week, Max says that everyone at on time will have to face "the dragon" at some point in the season. For the main character, Walker, his dragon is to go to make top twelve at state, and to break up with his girlfriend which is very difficult for him to do. Max says that you cannot take the dragon head on, but you must go with it, and then you can beat it. As the book progresses, each character meets their own dragon, which will bring about their innermost Stotan, and the dragon becomes more than just swimming. They face aspects of their inner Stotan which they thought that they would never have to do.

Stotan! is full of enjoyable and realistic characters. There is humor and sadness in every corner of the book. The book will leave you inspired, and ready to take on the "dragon".

This book was very remarkable. There are twists and turns around every page. The author did a very significant job writing all the tragic issues such as racism and domestic abuse. The book also talks about relationships and how to deal with almost the worst thing that they can throw at you. Stotan week is a week that Jeff, Lion, Nortie, and Walker have to deal with athletic and emotional roller coasters. In the beginning the book was a little unorganized. The book was a little slow in the beginning. It improved greatly towards the middle and even more in the end. I am recommending this book to older children, 12-17. It is a very short yet good book.

Chris Crutcher has a gift for breathing life and believability into his characters and this book is no exception. The characters are vintage Crutcher -- they face tragic deaths, there are gay characters and even characters with less, although readily recognizable issues.

Chris Crutcher is a gifted writer and many folks will find a literary friend in Lion. This book is a treat.

In STOTAN!, Chris Crutcher accurately captures the nuances of modern day high school life. He touches upon emotions that all of us encounter in high school, allowing every reader to identify stongly with at least one of the characters. His mixture of humor and tragedy make this novel an emotional roller coaster. This would be a great book for both parents and teens to read, then discuss around the dinner table!

When I first started to read this book, it was kinda boring, but most books are boring to me when I first start reading them anyways. As the book progressed, you got to know and learn about the characters and what they do and what they like. As I started to get interested into the characters, that's when the book got interesting.

The book teaches several good lessens in life. The book also has several subplots which also makes it more interesting. This is a nice short book that is completly worth your time. I suggest you read this book.

Stotan lacks the versatility necessary to serve as a text for general classroom study. Although Stotan contains several heavy topics such as relationships, racism, domestic violence and death, the physical and testosterone driven content narrows the audience appeal significantly. This novel is best suited as independent reading for adolescents with sports or swimming interests. The dialogue, pop culture references, and societal issues alluded to in this text emphasize the fact that this book was published in 1986. References to the Iranian hostage crisis, Tom Selleck, and Dirty Harry might be missed by today's teens. Crutcher left the reader with many questions about some lesser developed characters such as Elaine, Max, and Milika who were central to the storyline. The lack of believability of some of the story's events, such as Jeff's lying about his age and joining the Marines during his Junior year of high school,had the effect of underming the the speaker's credibility. Crutcher did succeed in his attmept to illuminate and encourage dialogue about some issues teenagers are bound to encounter on their journey to adulthood.