Stoner & Spaz

Reason Book Chosen

This book won the 2003 PEN Center USA Literary Award for Children's Literature, was chosen as a Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, and as a Top 10 Romance Fiction for Youth in 2002. It is an ALA best book for young adults, a Booklist Editor’s Choice, a Blue Ribbon Winner and was chosen Best Book of the Year by Publisher’s Weekly.

Bibliographic Information

Author: Ron Koertge

Publisher: Candlewick Press

ISBN: 0763616087

Copyright Date: 2002

Genre

Romance

About the Author

Ron Koertge has written and published children's books and young adult books. His other books include Deadville, Strays, Boy Girl Boy, and Margaux with an X.

Reader’s Annotation

An awkward, charismatic pair meet and move right into a dark, gorgeous place in your heart.

Plot Summary

Benjamin has Cerebral Palsy, lives with his grandmother, has no friends, and absent parents. He has never talked to a girl on the phone, let alone brushed elbows with a girl, and he spends most of his time studying or watching movies. He is polite, sensitive and caring. Colleen wears tall silver boots, is on the edge of the music scene, sells drugs, and lives in a world revolving mostly around drugs. Her family is dysfunctional, she admits to doing anything with any guy when she is fucked up, she rarely picks up a book, and rarely remembers movies she sees because she is usually too drunk or baked. She is brutally honest, and has no “pc” sensor. Benjamin and Colleen have a chance encounter at a movie theatre that leads to an unlikely friendship. As their friendship develops, Benjamin’s entire world broadens and changes, including his relationship with his Grandmother, his neighbor, and the community at large.

Critical Analysis

The dialogue in this book is phenomenal. The characters are unique, but not in a quirky, contrived way. I have never been introduced to a disabled character, let alone a teen one, that resembles Benjamin. The relationship between these two outcast characters, “freaks and geeks”, would be interesting enough on its own, but the witty and funny writing make it that much better. Colleen calls Benjamin a spaz, a cripple, and a slue of other derogatory terms, yet somehow the reader is left genuinely smiling about these things. Somehow Colleen’s honesty comes off on the page as endearing. The transformation of both characters, whom inch towards one another, is a perfectly slow and natural progression, as is their retreat backwards into parts of their old, familiar selves. This book is one to keep and treasure for a very long time.

Themes/Issues/Tags

Drug Addiction, Sex, Disability, Cerebral Palsy, High School, Romance, Friendship, Differences, Dysfunctional Family

Booktalking Ideas

Character Hooks- Read the character description from the critical analysis, above.

Topic Hook- Having a friend so different from you, yet someone you feel really similar to. Having a relationship where the differences is what brings you together

Topic Hook- Being sensitive to someone and their problems without pitying them or enabling them

Challenging Subject Matters

The Use of Non-Politically Correct Language

Defense: Everyone else in Benjamin’s life is overly sensitive to his condition or pretends it does not exist, which is just as enabling. Colleen’s words are just words. They are not hurtful because they come from a place of good intention, which they do. What she is actually doing is acknowledging Benjamin’s condition (and flirting with him!). The book does not condone teasing, bullying, or ostracizing, and instead teaches tolerance, learning from differences, and the importance of breaking away from stereotyped environments.

Curriculum Ties

Diversity

Disabilities

Stereotypes

Reading Level

12+

Interest Level

13-17