By Jerry Spinelli
A cocky seventh-grade football star narrates his own story of tormenting the gentle boy next door — and slowly, believably, changing.
Crash Coogan is fast, strong, the best athlete in seventh grade, and he loves an audience. When Penn Webb moves in next door — quiet, button-wearing, vegetarian, and Quaker — Crash decides making him miserable will be his season-long project: pranks, put-downs, small humiliations, with his buddy Mike cheering him on. For most of the book Crash sees no reason to quit. Then his grandfather Scooter, who lives with the family and whom Crash adores, has a stroke, and being close to someone he loves who's suddenly frail starts to change what Crash notices about the people around him. The whole thing is told in Crash's own swaggering voice, which is what makes it work. You're inside the head of the boy doing the pushing, watching him figure out he doesn't want to be that boy anymore.
Most books about bullying put you beside the target. This one hands the microphone to the boy doing it, which is the harder and more useful seat for a nine-to-twelve-year-old. Crash isn't a monster; he's a boy performing toughness for an audience of one friend, so watching him decide to stop feels like something a real child could do rather than a lesson being delivered. Spinelli keeps it funny and fast, with short chapters and plenty of football, and the weight sneaks up on you. It's an especially good fit for a child running with a crowd that dares each other into being mean.