Wooding, Chris. Crashing. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1998. ISBN: 0-
439-09012-1. 142 pgs. $6.99

Category/ Age Level:
Fiction or Coming of Age – I would recommend this book for juniors or seniors in high school because of the graphic content.

Characters:
Jay along with his friends Sam, Danny, and Cappo want to celebrate the end of the year. At the party, they along with their girlfriends try and have a good time while Jay (the main character) tries to talk to his crush, Jo Anderson. The party is going well until Stew and his gang came to break it up.

Plot:
It is the end of the school year and the beginning of summer and Jay wants to throw a party. This can’t be just any party; this has to be the best party of the year. This is the turning point to whether or not Danny, Sam, Cappo, and Jay will remain friends since the year is over. Everyone is having a good time. Danny and his girlfriend Cathy have already started fighting, Sam has already hit on more than one girl, and Jay has already consumed more than three beers. But where was Cappo? He was wandering around with a bottle of alcohol in his hands and that is all anyone knew. Jay walks past the front door and it opens with his fantasy girl walking through it. Jo Anderson, she was his fantasy girl and he was determined to score a date with her by the end of the evening. Following Jo through the door was Stew. Stew was coming to get his girlfriend to go with him to “the Zone”. “The Zone” was a hang out that only Stew and his gang went to in order to get drunk and Helen didn’t want to go. Jay sticks up for Helen and Stew tries to beat Jay up but he is too drunk to win. This wouldn’t be the last time Stew and Jay’s fists met each other that night.
As the party continues, things start to get worse. Cappo is drowning his sorrows in a bottle of alcohol and Danny’s girlfriend professed her love for his best friend, Jay. The worst event ever was Jay finding Sam and Jo in a bedroom together. Jay was beginning to think the party was going to tear their friendship apart more than build it up. Only a fight with Stew and his gang could save their friendship now.

Touchy Areas:
This book is filled with touchy areas. The book contains alcohol consumption of minors, divorce, sexual innuendoes, fighting, smoking, and cursing. The book would definitely put some ideas into kids’ minds so older students should read it.

Related Titles:
All I Want is Everything – Cecily von Ziegesar
Kim: The Party – Wendy Corsi Staub

Connections:
Movies: American Pie, Can’t Hardly Wait

Evaluation:
The book was a bit harsh at times but it was a real depiction of how students act these days at a party. Whether they are in high school or college, the parties they go to are exactly like the one that is the setting of the book. This book is a little racy to be read by high school students because it has too many touchy areas. The book is a very easy read and could help young adults through some though times.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 10 (because of the content in the book)

Reviewed By:
Anne Tritschler, University of Toledo, atritsc@pop3.utoledo.edu