THREE OYSTERS AND A CLAM

Three eleventh-graders grapple with the challenge of expanding beyond their small social circle as they spend a weekend seeking a fourth member for their flag-football team in this mildly entertaining novel. Narrator Flint has been best friends with Rick Beaterson and Dwight Deshutsis since first grade, and flag-football teammates since fifth. On their team, Three Clams and an Oyster, they are the clams, and the Oyster, who hikes, has been Cade Savage, ever since the team’s founder died in an accident. When Cade, who is increasingly into drink and drugs, blows off their first practice and pre-season game, the three friends set up tryouts with three possible players, including a girl. The dialogue, which mostly takes place as they drive around the Seattle area, rings of authenticity, including lots of humor but also insults based on being like a female, occasional gay slurs, and disgusted shock when the girl player has unshaven legs. The main theme, conveyed without subtlety, concerns whether they are too set in their ways and if they should be more open to new friends and experiences. While they clash credibly with each other, they are basically good-hearted, loyal, and likable, so readers may well enjoy going along for the ride. In the end, though, the story and its concerns are slight, not as engaging as Powell’s Run If You Dare (2001), which offers more substantial character development and depth. (Fiction. YA)