"Davy Crockett was our hero. And to prove it, we all went out and bought coonskin caps. About 100 million dollars worth of raccoon caps sold in one year certainly qualifies as a fad of serious ecocnomic proportions."
~Fads of the Fifties: Davy Crockett's Coonskin Caps |
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Gr 8 Up; Chris Crutcher fans will relish this no-holds-barred "ill-advised" autobiography (Greenwillow, 2004) of this popular, prolific author filled with a winning combination of humorous, nostalgic, and bittersweet anecdotes about his family, school days, "wannabe" athletic career," work, and writing. With the same unflinching honest approach that he brings to his popular titles for young adults, Crutcher details how his work with troubled kids and adults provide the ideas for his hard-hitting and often controversial novels. His gravelly voice, self-deprecating reminiscences, and candid comments provide listeners with a better understanding of the man behind the books. A must-have for libraries serving Chris Crutcher fans.
Cindy Lombardo, Tuscarawas County Public Library, New Philadelphia, OH
School Library Journal, 2005 |
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Current Reviews
Young Adult
KING OF THE MILD FRONTIER
Chris Crutcher
Read by Chris Crutcher
Young adult novelist Chris Crutcher's "ill-advised autobiography" is a collection of laugh-out-loud stories about growing up in the fifties and early sixties. Crutcher also reflects on how childhood events influenced his adult life and dual careers as a writer and therapist. There are lessons to be found--about managing anger, for example. And fans will pick up on some of the same themes--like sports--that run through his books WHALE TALK and STAYING FAT FOR SARAH BYRNES. Crutcher is a pleasant and competent reader, and hearing the author relate his own personal story makes for an intimate listening experience. Teens--particularly boys--may find a kindred spirit in the young Chris whom Crutcher so flawlessly re-creates. J.M.D. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/NOV 05] |
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KING OF THE MILD FRONTIER
Foreface
(Couldn't decide whether it was a Foreword or a Preface)
Before anything else, let me declare that I acquired my coonskin cap through the miracle of roadkill. No single raccoon was slaughtered for the frivolous purpose of linking my autobiography to the late, great Davy Crockett. In fact, a family of raccoons regularly passes through my cat door, unchallenged, on their way to a sumptuous all-you-can-eat meal of Fancy Feast gourmet cat food and I caught them the other day surround my cap, heads bowed reverently. If you haven't seen a circle of reverent raccoons, you haven't lived. At any rate, they seemed not to begrudge my ownership.
I began writing this autobiography in response to the question all authors hear more than any other, and few answer adequately: "Where do you get your ideas?" (I've had little luck with, "Pocatello, Idaho," as an answer, and not much more with, "The same place you get your.") The truth is, I get my ideas from my life, and I thought it might be fun and interesting to highlight some of those times and places. Of course, the original purpose only gets it started, and I wasn't too far into it before I forgot about answering that question and began to delight and grimace at my remembrances. Given that memory is selective, this book probably contains as much fiction as any of my novels, and of course I will say that to the members of the legal community representing my siblings and others who may take issues with the accuracy of my recall. My brother will deny at the gates of Heaven that he ever gunned me down like an electronic arcade toy, and my sister might well take issue that it was ever her habit to "rifle through her stools." I can certainly imagine I'll have some 'splainin' to do to my good wonderful friend Paula Whitson.
But exact accuracy aside, the heart of my life is here. There was far more to my father than the calculating teacher, more to my mother than her responses to the stranglehold and heartbreak of addiction. Nothing is black and white. But it was fun and provocative to play with the arbitrary threads of my life that presented themselves to weave into my personal story. Please know, dear reader, that if you believe you see yourself within these pages, I will deny with my dying breath that I ever knew you.
~Chris Crutcher |
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A Sneak Preview
Courtesy of HarperCollins/Greenwillow
The day my athletic image changes forever, we have just received our new purple and gold sweats (gold top, purple pants). After finishing a set of quarter-mile "sprints" that leave me convulsing on my hands and knees, welcoming an imagined crippling car accident in which I lose my legs and therefore am not required to endure this madness anymore, I pull myself together to stumble for the showers. As I walk over the rise next to the high school gymnasium, I see the girls in one of their three practices leading up to their softball Playday. At bat is Ellen Breidenbach, a solid, strong girl who appears as if she could hit the ball to Boise. On second base is Paula Whitson, the girl to whom I've been silently pledging my love since first grade. In a school with a population of just over a hundred, it's probably an overstatement to say she doesn't know I exist, but it's no overstatement at all to say that from a romantic standpoint, she doesn't care. As I move closer to the action, I hear Ellen telling the girls she wants to bat, but doesn't want to run the bases and suddenly I understand the meaning of the word "purpose" in the Christian sense. God has placed me exactly here, exactly now for a purpose. He wants me to get to second base with Paula Whitson.
Read an excerpt from Chapter One HERE.
Get your copy today. Find out why people are calling Crutcher the new Jean Shepherd.
Capture a glimpse of the KOTMF press kit HERE.
Gaze at the QUEEN OF THE MILD FRONTIER . |
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Review Excerpts
Publisher's Weekly:
Best Novel for Teens That Adults Would Love if They Knew About It -- King of the Mild Frontier by Chris Crutcher ("I read much of it aloud to my parents, and all three of us laughed so hard we were in tears").
"Crutcher's voice is firmly adult yet vividly true about his past thoughts. Achingly funny, profoundly serious."
Chicago Tribune -- April 27, 2003
"Seldom has the fraught and difficult time of adolescence had so fine a chronicler as Chris Crutcher, the multi-award-winning author of some of the best known and most loved young adult novels, including Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, Whale Talk, Ironman, and Running Loose. Now he's written a memoir, King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography (Greenwillow, 2003), in which he tells the story of his formative years in Cascade, Idaho. Fans of Crutcher's novels know that he writes winsomely in a tone that is both humorous and heartbreaking. It's no different in his memoir, except that here he shows himself willing to discuss some difficult issues in his own life, including an overly demanding father, an alcoholic mother, the effects of being burdened with a terrible temper, and no athletic ability. From the cover - a buck and gap-toothed kid grinning goofily - to the insight the book gives into his own novels, this is a must-read for anyone, of any age, interested in young adults and their literature."
Nancy Pearl, Washington Center for the Book
KUOW Public Radio's "The Beat" -- September 22, 2003
"Boys 14 and older who already know what an honest, this-is-real-life author Crutcher is (Whale Talk, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, Chinese Handcuffs) won't be surprised by his straightforward talk about growing up in a small town in Idaho. King of the Mild Frontier is a laugh-out-loud book at its best. Be sure to pass this one along to dad when you're finished - he'll smile and remember, too."
~ Holly Atkins, St. Petersburg Times
July 28, 2003
"King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography, succeeds on two levels. First, it will bring back a flood of memories for anyone who ever shot a BB gun, played backyard sports or rode a stick pony. But these cultural aspects are secondary to his honest and hilarious portrayal of how kids interact and cope with the world around them."
~ James Neal Webb
BookPage, June 2003
"Not only is Crutcher an excellent storyteller ("When I was a junior in high school, Alan Thompson's cousin mistook him for a deer and killed him"), he does a fine job of distilling therapeutic truths from the clearly souped-up tale..."
Washington Post
May 25, 2003
"In this personal account, readers can see that the voice of Chris Crutcher's fiction comes from the world in which he lives and works. Through one touching story of a former family therapy client -- an abused 4-year-old girl -- he presents a most convincing argument for maintaining this voice in his fiction. His defenders might want to take that chapter to the next school board hearing about pulling his books from the library. "
Tom Bodett, New York Times
May 18, 2003
"This honest,insightful, revealing autobiography is a joy to read. "
Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
May 15, 2003
"Crutcher, best known for his novels and short stories, has discovered his most effective voice in this collection of episodic, autobiograhical essays."
Horn Book
May 3, 2003
"In true Crutcher style, this memoir is disarming, hilarious, and never less than riveting."
Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops
Milwaukee, WI
"Crutcher has written an honest, hilarious and riveting account of his life as a child and the tricky road to adulthood."
TeenReads.com
April, 2003
"How does one grow up to become a banned-book writer? In this insightful and often hilarious Kunstlerroman, readers meet Chris Crutcher, the meek, gullible, hopelessly unathletic boy who would grow up to write books that chronicle the world of the teen misfit....the comic memories of boyhood will give this book an indisputable appeal for adult men, making it an excellent choice for a reading group of fathers and teens."
The Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books
May 3, 2003
"...a deeply moral and philosophical work with important messages about life, death, relativity, heroism, and why bad things sometimes happen to good people. Essential for the many fans of Crutcher's work, and new readers will go from here to his fiction."
Kirkus Reviews
STARRED REVIEW
April 1, 2003
"In this funny, bittersweet and brutally honest autobiography, Crutcher recounts his journey from a boyhood misspent in remote Cascade, Idaho ... to his present life as a writer. The author displays the same impeccable comedic timing that characterizes his young adult novels ... Crutcher can also turn from hilarity to heartache, as when he discusses his mothers' alcoholism or his own legendary temper ... Readers will clasp this hard-to-put-down book to their hearts even as they laugh sympathetically."
Publishers Weekly
STARRED REVIEW
March 3, 2003
"Move over Garrison Keillor, David Sedaris here's a story teller who combines the truths of compassion, anger, humiliation and so much more into a work that not only entertains but helps us to remember our own stories....An honest to goodness gut buster!!!"
Becky Wilkins
Anderson's Bookshop
Chicago, IL
"Like Frank McCourt and Tobias Wolff, Chris Crutcher calls up the demons of his past to convey the universal message of hope: that flowers do grow in shit."
A. Bitterman
Reading Reptile
Kansas City, MO.
"Chris Crutcher's outrageous tales of being a little brother, a young scholar, a doomed outdoorsman, and an athlete of questionable repute caused me to convulse with laughter to the point where my head started to hurt, and I began figuring that just one more story like the last one and I'd surely pee my pants."
Richie Partington, http://richiespicks.com.
To read the balance of the review, click HERE.
"Chris's father may have disparagingly nicknamed his son, "Lever," for Nature's Simplest Tool, but a quick check of World Book Encyclopedia indicates his father may have had something there. There are three basic types of levers, and Chris is definitely of the first-class variety. Laughing at images of pimples with their own spreads in National Geographic with climbing space for Sherpas is effortless, but laugh out loud scenes are balanced with philosophy that doesn't seem preachy. The distance back to Chris's teen years never seems far, his finger always on the fulcrum of the teetering emotions of his memoir. What could have been simply a load of events from his past becomes much more. In this "ill-advised autobiography," Crutcher takes out his verbal crowbar, torques on our emotions, and moves us effortlessly. ' Want to do something neat? ' Read KING OF THE MILD FRONTIER."
~ Cindy Dobrez, Librarian
Harbor Lights Middle School (Michigan)
"Crutcher's new book KING OF THE MILD FRONTIER is a memoir of an all too familiar road to adulthood. It is honest, disarming, hilarious, poignant and not for one second boring."
Patricia Kindermann, Director
Embracing the Child
www.embracingthechild.org
"Crutcher has done a stunning job of baring his heart, his soul, and his funny bone. Alternately, and sometime simultaneously, hilarious, touching, insightful, and charming, the stories he tells will appeal to readers, writers, and anyone else with a pulse. After reading his bio, I wish I'd grown up next door to him. Or, for the sake of my safety, maybe just a bit farther down the block".
David Lubar, Author DUNK & HIDDEN TALENTS
www.davidlubar.com
"Gore's big on therapist Chris Crutcher's 'King of the Mild Frontier,' a humorous, heartbreaking look at childhood difficulties."
Geeta Sharma Jensen, referencing Elly Gore, Schwartz buyer.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Jan. 26, 2003
"Great writers don't tell us about their world, they bring us there and show us what's going on. And this is exactly what Crutcher does—he shows us what happened and how he survived it."
Librarian, Cathy Belben
"Crutcher's style is eminently accessible and clearly written, sprinkled liberally with humor and self-deprecation. It is, after all, an 'ill-advised' autobiography."
Epinions.com Review (very well written) |
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