Where Can Notes on Jerry Spinelli's novel Crash Be Found? Crash is a 1996 young adult novel written by Jerry Spinelli. Crash follows a 7th grader, John "Crash" Coogan, and his life on a cul-de-sac in Pennsylvania. Crash plays football and runs track, and is known throughout his school as the fastest runner. He is a happy, confident jock, with a best friend named Mike Deluca. Crash seems to have a
. happy and carefree life, until his grandfather suddenly takes ill. The novel Crash tells the story of the troubles John "Crash" and his family have to face during this time, and how these challenges help change his life and shape who he is as a person. Crash's experiences cause him to re-evaluate his life and what is most important to him. This book tracks the maturation process of this young boy, and tackles many important coming of age issues such as gender issues, bullying, friendship and popularity. Many boys enjoy this book as it involves sports, and avoids becoming overly emotional. For these reasons, this book is often taught in schools. Male and female students alike enjoy and are able to learn from this book as Spinelli intertwines male and female character viewpoints seamlessly. Jerry Spinelli has written more than a dozen books for young readers, including Maniac Magee, (1990) which won the Newbery Medal award. There are many online sites where notes, reviews, comments and lesson plans are available in order to help teachers use this book effectively in their classes. This book is often used not only for emotional content, but vocabulary improvement and general reading as well. Many sites also offer comments from young readers. Websites related to literature, scholastic reviews and teacher websites have notes, book report samples and other materials related to this book as well as Spinelli's other works. More reference links: http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~jcope/Eng3391/3391F00/Terri%20Kelly/Terri%20Kelly.htm http://ethemes.missouri.edu/themes/713?locale=en
