Crunch

Great characters and engaging story

Crunch tells the story of five siblings who find themselves home alone when their parents become stranded across the country because of a fuel shortage. All of a sudden, if you want to get anywhere you have to go by bike. This means that the Marriss family business, a bike repair shop, is busier than ever and 14 year old Dewey must figure out how to handle things on his own. This is a really well written tale and the author has created a bunch of realistic characters in the Marriss family. It's not often that you see Dystopian themes addressed in literature for fourth graders, and the author has done a good job here of taking a difficult situation and sort of toning it down for the 10 year old palate, all the while still keeping an air of authenticity. This is a compelling read, and young kids will be cheering for Dewey to succeed in his efforts while at the same time thinking about what they would do in his situations. You feel heartbroken because you know how much they miss their parents and wonder at their ability to keep going in the face of so much uncertainty. Their desire throughout to "quit being the parents" lends realism to these teenagers sometimes superhuman efforts at being adults. A big recommend to any kid 4-8 grade. This is a great story that is sure to become a classic. I will not be surprised to see this one on many awards lists!

Set in the not-too-distant future, this deals with three teenage siblings looking after the home place and the five-year-old twins while the parents are away for what was supposed to be a long weekend. However, gasoline/diesel fuel, which was rationed before, suddenly becomes unavailable at any price, and the parents are stranded. With no cars available, people are using their bikes, which means that the family bike repair business is overwhelmed. The two older boys hold things together for a while, but they're only 13 and 15 and while both have been raised to be self-reliant and resourceful, they are just kids after all, and things soon get out of control. When the oldest girl finally overcomes her stubborn pride and asks for help from the community, neighbors and friends pitch in. The fuel supply chain is partially restored and the parents come back, and all is well, but not unchanged.

Ms. Connor has done it again. After loving her last book, "Waiting for Normal," I was excited to see that she had written another. Hard to believe it, but this one was even better. I highly recommend this book to children and adults alike. It's a classic. Not only is the story compelling, but the characters are realistic and lovable, and the writing is flawless. I'm waiting in anticipation for Ms. Connor's next published novel!

In Leslie Connor's fun and provocative new book CRUNCH, there isn't a fuel shortage going on. There is no more fuel, period. The five Marriss kids are home alone. Dad is a trucker and Mom is with him because it is their annual work/pleasure on the road anniversary celebration. Now Mom and Dad are out of diesel and stuck up in Canada because gasoline and diesel fuel have run out. Everywhere. It being summer, fourteen-year-old Dewey, from whose point of view the story is told, has already been busy at home, working with brother Vince at the family bicycle repair business -- the side business his dad had started -- while the parents are gone. To characterize the bicycle repair business as suddenly booming now -- now that there is no more fuel -- is an understatement. In fact, it is becoming Dewey's life and obsession. The highway is free of motor vehicles. Walkers are over to the right using the slow lane and the fastest bicyclists are utilizing the left hand passing lane. No fuel also means no trucking of food or other goods, which means that buying local is going to quickly become a way of life. How bad and how quickly might this spiral out of control? Dewey goes shopping with big sister Lil while Vince guards the bicycles outside: "She stood staring at the shelves, then at other people's carts. The look on her face was suddenly strange. 'I think we should skip the list and just get what we can get,' she said. 'And a lot of it.' "'What do you mean?' "'Let's just get to it,' she said. She leaned toward me and spoke quietly. 'Start picking things that we can store for a while. Like that cheddar. That was a good one, Dew.' "Now I was kind of creeped out. This grocery run felt like a preemptive strike." Imagine what all of this would be like in reality. Think about where you live and what it would be like if you could suddenly only travel by foot or bicycle. Or imagine what it would be like if we have more warning than they have gotten in this rapidly intensifying story. Consider how you might utilize your motor vehicles differently if supply concerns were to cause gasoline to rise to $6 per gallon, $10 per gallon, $15 per gallon, or $20 per gallon. Impossible, you say? Look at the rising price of gold, and think about how many more people would be involved in bidding up the price of gasoline than the price of gold. If you could lock in, say, a thousand gallons of gasoline at near today's prices, knowing that it would double in price over the next six months, wouldn't you go to some lengths to do so yourself? (Which, of course, creates a self-fulfilling prophesy.) What else might you do if you were faced with walking or bicycling from this point forward? If you add in the cost of the fuel consumed at even $10 per gallon, how much will it really be costing you for that espresso or that pint of ice cream that you impulsively decide that you cannot do without and hop into the car for? How about the cost o

When his parents get stuck miles away from home due to a worldwide gas shortage, it's up to Dewey Marriss to run the family's bike shop. But with the sudden demand for bicycle repairs, this proves to be no easy task... Between the heavy workload, the fear of a thief, sibling conflicts, Dewey has a lot working against him--but luckily he has the love of family, the support of friends, and even the unexpected help of a stranger working for him. Crunch is amazing. It's that simple. Rarely do you find a story with such great family interaction--and the ones that come to mind are already greats: the stories of Elizabeth Enright, Eleanor Estes, Jeanne Birdsall... Despite some mentions of technology, Crunch is sure to join them on the classic shelf, because it feels timeless. Dewey's voice is marvelous and believable, and his predicament is well developed through a character-driven plot. I'm expecting to see this story come up on a lot of Newbery discussions.