The Big Crunch

by Pete Hautman

Overview

A funny, clear-eyed view of the realities of teenage love from National Book Award winner Pete Hautman.

A funny, clear-eyed view of the realities of teenage love from National Book Award winner Pete Hautman.Jen and Wes do not "meet cute." They do not fall in love at first sight. They do not swoon with scorching desire. They do not believe that they are instant soul mates destined to be together forever. This is not that kind of love story.Instead, they just hang around in each other's orbits...until eventually they collide. And even after that happens, they're still not sure where it will go. Especially when Jen starts to pity-date one of Wes's friends, and Wes makes some choices that he immediately regrets.From National Book Award winner Pete Hautman, this is a love story for people not particularly biased toward romance. But it is romantic, in the same way that truth can be romantic and uncertainty can be the biggest certainty of all...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545332583
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	01/01/2011
Sold by:	Scholastic, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	930,984
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Pete Hautman won the National Book Award for his novel Godless. He is also the author of the acclaimed novels The Big Crunch, How to Steal a Car, Rash, Invisible, Sweetblood, Hole in the Sky, No Limit, and Mr. Was. His home in the world is Minnesota, and his home on the web is www.petehautman.com.

Editorial Reviews

Showing his range, Hautman (How to Steal a Car) writes a love story that's affecting despite, or perhaps because of, its ordinariness. Wes and June know each other, vaguely, from high school, but become better acquainted when he accidentally gives her a black eye. Both teens are prone to introspection. June is constantly on guard because her father's job requires the family to move often; Wes cleans out the garage when too much thinking leads to insomnia. When the two overcome obstacles to become a couple, they fall hard. Hautman's depiction of this is both sensitive and realistic—"I can't breathe when I look at you," Wes tells June—and the use of scientific imagery adds metaphorical heft to an otherwise run-of-the-mill romance (to everybody but Wes and June, of course). As she expected, June's father pulls up stakes again, and the lovers try to carry on with texting and telephone calls, leading to frustration and bad decisions. Readers who need nonstop action must look elsewhere, but those who make it to June's final declaration will arrive with a lump firmly lodged in their throats. Ages 13–up. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for How to Steal a Car:

"A sporty, stylish model with peppy acceleration and surprising traction, this will be a sweet ride for readers from reluctant to avid." -Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"[A] joyride of a novel... Hautman's charismatic firstperson narrator recounts a convincing tale of a good girl stumbling upon her wild streak." -Horn Book

"A sharply observed, subversive coming-of-age tale." -Kirkus Reviews

"A great contemporary read for anyone who loves quirky narrators!" -TeensReadToo.com

From the Publisher

Gr 8 Up—June has attended six schools in the last four years and is once again the new kid, this time at a Minnesota high school. First on her agenda: find some friends and a boyfriend. Wes broke up with Izzy just before school started and he doesn't want another girlfriend, but after seeing June, he can't get her out of his mind. June meanwhile starts dating Wes's best friend. Wes is in a fog. A chance encounter with her sparks a romance between the two. But before it even has a chance to get started, it's time for June to move again. Told from June's and Wes's alternating points of view, this book follows their romance through the four seasons. With rapid-fire dialogue and plenty of sappy language, the author nails the confused, self-absorbed teen characters obsessed with first love. However, the plot falls flat by focusing too closely on what love feels like instead of building a story.—Shawna Sherman, Hayward Public Library, CA

School Library Journal

Wes Andrews has just ended a suffocating relationship with Izzy. June is new to the school—her sixth in the last four years. Like Wes, she's not looking to get entangled; she'll just be moving on in no time anyway, wherever her father's business takes the family next. And it doesn't seem likely that Wes and June will get together. He wonders about her thick lips, her wide mouth and greenish-blue eyes set too far apart, making her look like "a sea creature pretending to be human." And to her he's just "another guy with a case of arrested development." But in the high-school world of "users, posers, geeks, skanks, preps, gangstas, macho-morons, punks, burnouts, and so forth," the two relatively normal, nice kids do find each other...eventually. Hautman uses a third-person point of view to weave a humorous and bittersweet tale of romance and the convoluted, uncertain paths that bring two people together. A poignant and quiet tale in which the only special effect is love—refreshing. (author's note) (Fiction. 13 & up)

Kirkus Reviews