The Big Game of Everything »

Chris Lynch is a National Book Award finalist and the author of many highly acclaimed books for young adults, including The Big Game of Everything, Who the Man, and the Michael L. Printz Honor Book Freewill; Iceman, Shadow boxer, Gold Dust, and Slot Machine, all ALA Best Books for Young Adults; and Extreme Elvin. He also mentors aspiring writers and teaches in the creative writing program at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

You have to love your family. You do, even if you don't, right?

You don't have to understand them or play tennis with them, but you have to love them. It's a rule, and it's the kind of rule you don't break unless you're some kind of animal.

My brother happens to be some kind of animal. My sister rides this sweet gold Honda scooter and has amazing hair. You'd hate her. My parents are vegetarian let-the-sunshine-in freaks. Lovable freaks, but freaks all the same. My grandfather possesses a shocking comb-over, a kilt, about half of his original marbles, and his own golf complex. This summer, we are all working for him. It is going to be two hot, lucrative, carefree months of paradise.

Or, possibly something else.

KLIATT

Jock is looking forward to two blissful summer months helping out at his grandfather's 13-hole golf complex, but his oddball family members have plans of their own. Jock's devilish younger brother Egon, id to Jock's superego, just wants to get rich; his sister Meredith just wants to make out with her boyfriend; his parents are sweet but generally clueless hippies; and his Grampus, despite the golf complex, isn't happy with what he has. Grampus feels he's losing at life, "the Big Game of Everything," because he's not ostentatiously rich like his obnoxious old friends, who show up and joyfully wreak havoc. Jock can't understand why Grampus is so hung up on the idea of winning when to his mind the man already has it all, but in the end his wacky but loving family manages to make it all right. More episodic than plot-driven, this rollicking tale about some true eccentrics features memorable characters and relationships: between long-suffering Jock and his tormenter Egon, in particular, and between Jock and his Grampus. It's an affirmation of the value of family, despite their differences, and the dialog is often a delight. This offbeat story will appeal to anyone with a funny bone. Reviewer: Paula Rohrlick