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The Big Game of Everything Hardcover – September 2, 2008

by Chris Lynch (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 4 ratings
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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.

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    288 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    HarperCollins
  4. Publication date
    September 2, 2008
  5. Grade level
    8 - 9
  6. Reading age
    13 years and up
  7. Dimensions
    5 x 1.05 x 7.12 inches
  8. ISBN-10
    0060740345
  9. ISBN-13
    978-0060740344
  10. Lexile measure
    830L
  11. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7–10—Introspective and curious, Jock is considering questions many people never get around to puzzling out: What is the true measure of success? Is it money? Or, is it somehow achievable merely by defining one's own vision of happiness and making it happen? While most young adults' values are defined by friends and family, Jock's moral compass lacks an obvious pole to fix upon. His hippieish parents happily operate a barbershop with a backward business plan based on convincing would-be patrons to let their hair grow, and his younger brother brazenly takes materialistic self-interest, snarkiness, and sloth to laughable heights. Jock's main challenge in this crash course in self-discovery lies in figuring out if the employer he idolizes, the owner of the underutilized golf complex on which he works—and who also happens to be his grandfather—is a worthy role model or a tortured train in the midst of derailment. Unlike Jock's parents, Grampus claims to believe in entrepreneurial ambition. He pursues those goals in idiosyncratic fashion, running and expanding his 13-hole golf course on his own terms, often shoeless and shirtless—and sometimes in a kilt. Jock begins to wonder if his grandfather's a winner, a loser, or something in between—until a series of unexpected visits and a mild stroke force the answer. The Big Game of Everything is a funny and thoughtful novel that considers the true nature of class, happiness, and success through the eyes of a teenage boy.—Jeffrey Hastings, Highlander Way Middle School, Howell, MI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Jock and his younger brother Egon—constantly at odds but nearly inseparable—spend a summer working at their grandfather’s golf course in this lighthearted but poignant story. When two of Grampus’ old marine buddies show up, throwing their money around and wowing young Egon by buying whatever they want, often simply so that no one else can have it, Jock begins to see Grampus in a new light, revealing a deeply sad man notching his self-worth against the yardstick of wealth. In a golf-as-life touch, Grampus’ unfinished golf course has only 13 holes (“For a full round pick your favorite five holes and replay them”), and the game takes on cosmic weight as Jock challenges a bully to a round in a massive thunderstorm: “I am doing something hard, and it feels important, even if to the outside world it might look stupid.” The lesson—that the most heart, not the most stuff, wins the real points in life—is handled cleanly enough to keep even non-golfers involved in the humorous exploits of Jock and his family. Grades 7-10. --Ian Chipman

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins; 1st edition (September 2, 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0060740345
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0060740344
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 13 years and up
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 830L
  • Grade level ‏ : ‎ 8 - 9
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 1.05 x 7.12 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 4 ratings

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
4 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Teen Reads
5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful, funny and touching novel that will remind readers of what's really important in life
Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2008
Thirteen-year-old Jock thinks his family is incredibly weird. His hippy, vegetarian parents named him Union Jack (though at age six he wanted it to be pronounced Onion Jock). They insist that everyone --- including their own kids --- call them by their first names.

Leonard and Peach run a barbershop/manicurist/palm reading establishment called Fame&Fortune, but they don't give a hoot about making lots of money. They're the complete opposite of Jock's grandfather, who believes that the key to happiness is cold hard cash. He owns and manages his own golf course, all 13 holes of it (Grampus is in the process of constructing the 14th one himself).

Jock's younger brother, Egon, takes after his grandfather in the money grubbing area, but is about a hundred times worse. Another personality flaw of his is that he takes great pleasure in picking on Jock (or Dingleberry, as he calls him), both physically and verbally, though he is the first one to come to Jock's rescue when bullies like the Noblett brothers threaten him.

Despite his eccentric family, Jock looks forward to the approaching summer vacation as he and Egon will work at the golf course. Jock loves the compound, as they call it, and thinks it's the greatest place in the world, owned and managed by the greatest person in the world. Even though the pay isn't very consistent, and he sometimes has to clean the public restrooms, Jock is happiest when at the golf course. He doesn't even like to play the sport, though he enjoys hitting balls at the driving range. But then something happens that changes everything.

Grampus suffers a stroke, and his loved ones discover that the golf course is failing financially. As he slowly starts to recover, Grampus comes to see life in a new light. Maybe having money isn't so important after all. The entire family pitches in to save the course and, in the process, brings a fresh glow and a new atmosphere to the compound.

Jock even begins to see some change in himself and digs up the courage to stand up to one of the Noblett brothers. His intense and discovery-filled summer proves that having money and objects aren't the important things in life; love and family are, even relatives as strange as Jock's.

Chris Lynch's latest book is a hilarious look at a world that has gone crazy with mixed-up priorities, valuing money and toys over family and friends. Lynch's sense of humor really brings this meaningful story to life, along with a cast of colorful characters. Jock especially shines, with a wisdom beyond his years and a special gift of insight into others. THE BIG GAME OF EVERYTHING is a wonderful, funny and touching novel that will remind readers of what's really important in life.

--- Reviewed by Chris Shanley-Dillman, author of FINDING MY LIGHT and THE BLACK POND
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3.0 out of 5 stars Enchanting Review: The Big Game of Everything
Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2008
THE BIG GAME OF EVERYTHING
CHRIS LYNCH
Contemporary YA

Rating: 3 Enchantments

Union Jack (pronounced Onion Jock) is a relatively normal guy except for the fact that his family is rather eccentric. If one couldn't already tell from Jock's unusual name, the people Jock resides with lean a little more towards loony. Jock's father Leonard, a hairdresser, probably spends more time trying to convince his customers to not get their hair cute, and Jock's younger brother Egon, Jock's spokesdevil, is physically larger than Jock and enjoys terrorizing him and other people (in a friendly way of course). But through all this strangeness, Jock still loves his family because, well, they're his family.

If there's one person in Jock's family he admires the most, it is his Grampus. This is thy Jock looks forward to a summer of helping run Grampus' not-quite-finished golf course. But Jock's not going to get the simple summer he expected, especially after two of Grampus' old friends show up at the golf course. With the introduction of The Big Game of Everything, Jock's relationship with Grampus as well as his view of the world shifts, and it's up to him to discover what really is most important to him.

THE BIG GAME OF EVERYTHING turned out to be only a mediocre story, which was a disappointment to me. Based on the back-cover summary, I was expecting a laugh-out-loud story that was meaningful, but instead, I got only a couple of chuckles and some confusion. Part of this is a result of the wacky characters; I felt the characters' eccentricities worked against the story because they never truly gained my sympathy. The plot was pretty boring most of the time as well, which made me lose interest in the story most of the time. I think that Lynch was trying to create a more thought-provoking novel, but THE BIG GAME OF EVERYTHING failed at this because I couldn't concentrate long enough on the story to really think about it. On the positive side, the weird characters did lead to some humorous situations and there was one exceptionally well-written scene towards the ending. However, for the most part, I felt like I was missing the big idea which was never explicitly stated. If you're the type of reader who likes to look for meanings deep within stories, then you should read this book, but otherwise, I do not recommend it.

Chris Lynch is the author of several other novels for young adults including FREEWILL, SHADOW BOXER, and SLOT MACHINE. You can visit him online at his website: [...]

Rachael Stein
Enchanting Reviews
September 2008
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TeensReadToo
4.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too
Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2008
Jock has lined up the perfect summer job working at his grandfather's golf course. He figures work will probably be sporadic and he looks forward to racing around the greens in one of the golf carts from Grampus's mighty fleet. But sure enough, just like in golf, he slices.

It turns out he and his bumbling, antagonistic, younger brother, Egon, are the only caretakers Grampus has hired for the summer. And the mighty fleet turns out to be only two golf carts, and Grampus uses one of them for his dates with the lesson of the week. Like Jock, Grampus embraces the sun and heat, and somehow it's always Jock, not Egon, who gets the chore of rubbing sunscreen onto Grampus's back so he can work wearing only a kilt, creating the 13th hole of the course with his enormous digger.

Is this crazy loon the same grandfather Jock has always admired? Is his life still the life Jock envies and yearns for?

When two old friends of Grampus' show up, flashing their bling and offering to purchase his cherished snooker table, Jock begins to see a side of Grampus that he's never seen before. Leonard, Jock's flakey barbershop dad, who tries to convince people not to cut their hair; Peaches, his psychic, palm-reading mother; and even Grammus, Jock's rich and independent grandmother, surprise Jock as they come together to help Grampus save his golf course.

Jock finds out that yes, life's about playing the big game of everything, but more than that, life is about family.

In THE BIG GAME OF EVERYTHING, Chris Lynch finds humor in the mundane, and turns the ordinary into the unexpected. This novel is great for a lazy afternoon when what you want most is a quiet, calming read, with laugher sprinkled throughout.

Reviewed by: Cana Rensberger
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