THE BIG CRUNCH
by Pete Hautman
Wes Andrews has just ended a suffocating relationship with Izzy. June is new to the school—her sixth in the last four years. Like Wes, she’s not looking to get entangled; she’ll just be moving on in no time anyway, wherever her father’s business takes the family next. And it doesn’t seem likely that Wes and June will get together. He wonders about her thick lips, her wide mouth and greenish-blue eyes set too far apart, making her look like “a sea creature pretending to be human.” And to her he’s just “another guy with a case of arrested development.” But in the high-school world of “users, posers, geeks, skanks, preps, gangstas, macho-morons, punks, burnouts, and so forth,” the two relatively normal, nice kids do find each other…eventually. Hautman uses a third-person point of view to weave a humorous and bittersweet tale of romance and the convoluted, uncertain paths that bring two people together. A poignant and quiet tale in which the only special effect is love—refreshing. (author’s note) (Fiction. 13 & up)