King of the Mild Frontier

ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults * New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age

A riveting, scorching—and hilarious—autobiography by the award-winning author of Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes and Deadline.

From trying to impress a member of the girls’ softball team (with disastrous dental results) to enduring the humiliation of his high school athletic club initiation (olives and oysters play unforgettable roles), Chris Crutcher’s memoir of the tricky road to adulthood is candid, disarming, laugh-out-loud funny, relevant, and never less than riveting.

He vividly describes a temper that was always waiting to trip him up even as it sustained him through some of the most memorable mishaps any child has survived. And how did this guy (he lifted his brother’s homework through the entire tenth grade) ever become a writer, not to mention the author of fourteen critically acclaimed books for young people?

The frontier may be mild, but the book is not. Fans of Tara Westover’s Educated, Jack Gantos’s Hole in My Life, and Walter Dean Myers’s Bad Boy will laugh, will cry, and will remember.

“Funny, bittersweet and brutally honest. Readers will clasp this hard-to-put-down book to their hearts even as they laugh sympathetically.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Before he wrote the stories, he had to live them.

• Small Town Life: From disastrous first dates and ill-advised stunts with BB guns to the mortifying C Club initiation involving oysters, olives, and a complete lack of dignity.
• Finding Your Voice: The hilarious, hard-won, and often embarrassing true stories of how a kid with a volcanic temper and a knack for trouble grew up to be a celebrated author.
• Funny and Honest: A candid look at family, friendship, and the universal awkwardness of growing up, told with the signature wit that has made Chris Crutcher a legend in young adult fiction.
• Books for Teen Boys: Perfect for readers who love unflinchingly honest memoirs and anyone who has ever felt like they don’t quite fit in.