About this title: Refusing to accept his football coach's order to deliberately hurt a black player, high school senior Louie Banks is kicked off the team. Determined to still excel as an athlete, Louie trains to become a runner.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Date Published: 1983
ISBN-13:9780688020026ISBN:068802002X
Description: Good in good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 192 p. Ex-Library expected imperfections. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this item supports Pierce County libraries. Thriftbooks and PCL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: William Morrow & Co
Date Published: 1983
ISBN-13:9780688020026ISBN:068802002X
Description: Fair in Fair jacket. Ex-Library Copy With Usual Markings, DJ Mylar Protected, Page Ends Soiled, Spine Slanted, Text Is Unmarked, Reading Copy. read more
"Genre/Category: sports/discrimination/death/coming of age
Summary: Louis Banks has a pretty good life. He has made the football team after spending months to prepare and get himself in top physical condition. He has a good job with supportive adults. He has a girlfriend, Becky, who is smart, popular, beautiful and who loves and supports him in everything. He has a great best frien, Carter, who is there to listen and encourages him in his football dreams. And his parents are the kind that don't stifle. But everything changes when he makes a big choice in football, deciding to stand up for values that he didn't even know he had. Some people support him, others tear him apart. And then it gets worse. Becky dies in a car crash. His grief overcomes him and he loses himself for a while. The combination of the football disaster and the loss of Becky contribute to multiple reactions that tug at the reader's heartstrings. In the end, a supportive coach guides him to a new release where he can succeed and find himself again.
I really enjoyed this book. Some people might be turned away by the apparent sports message, but I think that this book addresses multiple issues that students face everyday that go far beyond sports. It addresses discrimination and standing up for the values you believe in. It addresses death and grief, friendship and love, trials and successes. Overall, I felt that the book was very poignant and I truly felt empathy for Louis. This book could be read by older junior high students and high school students."
"I never thought I could be so affected by a sports novel! In fact, I don't think I have ever read a book about sports in which I even became attached to the characters-unless you count the quidditch games in Harry Potter. It wasn't until I had read several chapters that I realized it, but Running Loose drew me in so deeply that it was hard for me to get myself back into reality each time I had to stop reading.
The story is about Louie, a high school senior in a small town in Idaho. Louie is doing well on the high school football team and ends up dating the girl that every boy in the school would love to date, a cheerleader named Becky. Becky and Louie become close friends, and she supports him as he deals with being asked not to play football, or any other sport for that matter, after he goes against his coach's orders to purposely injure a black player on another team. When one of Louie's teammates actually follows through and takes the black player down, Louie makes a huge scene on the field and his coach and principal will not let him live it down. The climax of the story comes when Becky is killed in a car accident and Louie yells at the preacher during her funeral. The rest of the story is about how Louie comes to grips with Becky's death, especially with the help of one of his coaches who pulls some strings to let him compete on the track team.
Chris Crutcher did such a fantastic job of making Louie a believable and genuine character that I found myself caring deeply about what he felt and what happened to him. I know that I felt so strongly, in part, because of Chris Crutcher's powerful writing style and character development. By the end of the novel I really felt like I knew each of the characters personally because I had come to know and feel about them as Louie did. This was because Chris Crutcher was able to make Louie sound like an honest teenage boy who was just relating his experiences and feelings. Hearing these experiences and feelings through Louie, a character who was just as naive and focused on high school as most adolescents are helped me to think about what I would have done had I been in Louie's place. Although I was skeptical at first about young adults reading this novel, due to some of the language and casual approach to teenage sex, I now feel that it is a great way for adolescents to see someone their age dealing with difficult issues that they will have to face someday, if they haven't already."
"This is a sports YA fiction book set in a small town in Idaho. It talks about a boy names Louie Banks who is training really hard for his football season coming up. His best friend Carter and him are on the team and come the first practice they are very fit. By one of the first games, his coach sees a potential for the team to lose because of one African-American football player on the other team. The coach tells the team to try to take him out of the game (get him hurt). When one of the players goes through with it, Louie goes nuts and ends up quitting the team. Luckily he has his cute and positive girlfriend Becky to give him hope in life and they fall in love. But, in an attempt to avoid hitting a kid, Becky's car runs off the road and she dies. Louie is upset and goes to her funeral. When the pastor says things about Becky he knew that he didn't even know her and he shouts. The book is about him dealing with this loss and just trying to understand the rules of life. The assistant football coach is also the track coach and tells Louie to run track on his team. Louie trains alone and runs and runs until he cannot do so anymore. During his runs he thinks about life, and about Becky. He becomes one of the best runners in the region. This novel deals with the main character, Louis, going against "the man." This is stereotyped a bit with "the man" being in leadership roles such as a coach and the principal, but, of course, it is in these leadership roles when the man is able to abuse his power. What I loved so much about Louis' character is his ability to trust the respectful adults in his life. There are so many stories of the outright rebellious teenager who hates his parents and everyone who tries to tell him what to do. I think this attribute is what actually got me caring about Louis; if he was acting out against everyone in his life that actually cared for him, I would feel like if I was his friend, he would hate me too so there would be no real point to get closer to the character. While Crutcher does show the realization that not all adults are trustworthy by tossing away Coach Lednecky's angel halo like a discus, he also shows that there are some people that are there to help, and achieves this in a non-didactic way. The ending proves this, because even after Louis has come to terms with things, he still is planning on going back to the school and smashing the plaque with a sledgehammer."
"Running Loose by Chris Crutcher Sports/Death/Doing What's Right
Crutcher's Louie is a believable teenager who has everything going for him, and in an attempt to do what is right, has his goals as a football player taken away from him. But he still has his girlfriend, Becky, the prettiest girl in school. But a fateful accident tears his relationship apart and Louie has to learn to run with what life throws at him. The story might appeal more to boys or fans of sports, but Crutcher uses sports as a background in which to weave his story. The story is really about Louie, not football or cross country. Along the way, Louie learns that there are people who care about him and with the support of others you can get through just about anything."
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