Crash

Now available in paperback, Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli's hilarious, poignant story of cocky seventh-grade superjock Crash Coogan.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Customer Reviews:

A great book for people of all ages!

By A Customer - November 9, 1999

Imagine being nicknamed Crash. Now, imagine you got that name because when you were five you tackled your little cousin into a snow bank. This is the situation in Crash by Jerry Spinelli. This is a wonderful book that I greatly enjoyed. While I was reading, my favorite character had to definitely be John "Crash" Coogan. He was the reason I kept reading this book. The pranks he did as a young child were just, hilarious. For example, the time he first met Penn Webb, his Quaker neighbor, Webb had just moved from North Dakota and was wearing a button that said, "Hi, I'm a Flickertail." Webb explained how the Flickertail was the state bird in North Dakota, and Crash just ripped the button right off his shirt and buried the button. The next day, Webb was wearing another button. This time the button said, "Peace." Once again, Crash, tore the button right off his shirt and buried the button. On that same day, Crash also took Penn's turtle... read more

Insensitive "jock" learns the true meaning of friendship

By blvd@superior.net - January 7, 1999

Crash Coogan is befriended by the new school "dweeb" and does everything he can to discourage the friendship that Penn Web so badly wants. Crash insults and humiliates Penn, but Penn keeps coming back. Only when Crash's adored grandfather, Scooter" becomes ill, does Crash find out who his real friends are, and the true meaning of friendship. I am a librarian in an elementary school in New York. I read this book to my 5th grades last year. I have had to buy mulitple copies of the book. One year later I still cannot keep it on the shelf. Jerry Spinelli's works have changed once reluctant readers into avid fans who cannot get enough of his books!

A novel about the typical jock is anything but ordinary

By QUEEN_OF_EVERYTHING - June 11, 2004

I first read Spinelli's CRASH during the sixth grade for assigned reading at Waldron Mercy Academy, my private grade school. I was pulled in from page one and couldn't help but laugh out loud at the adventures and the misadventures of Crash Coogan, who got his nickname all because of a long ago incident involving a football helmet and his cousin, Bridget, who Crash knocked down into three feet of post-blizzard snow. Crash is not an inherently bad kid - he's got his flaws just like the rest of the human population. In CRASH, Spinelli takes the archetypal bullying jock and narrates through him, making this book anything but ordinary.Nonetheless, Crash is a bully. Enter Penn Webb, his target. Why pick on poor Penn, you ask? Why not pick on Penn? is more of the question here. Penn Webb is a skinny Quaker boy, mild-mannered and with a heart of gold. He wears used clothes that are painfully outdated, he's joined the cheerleading squad, his aging parents look like grandparents,... read more