Stoner and Spaz by Ron Koertge (Candlewick Press, 2002)
(Stoner & Spaz #1)
Genre: General Fiction, Real life
Honors: Michigan Library Association Thumbs Up! Award Nominee (2003), Georgia Peach Honor Book Award (2004) [Honors Information found at Goodreads.com]
Review: Ben is sixteen and has cerebral palsy. He doesn't have many friends so he spends all his time watching movies. When the notorious stoner-girl shows up during a monster movie marathon at the local theater and starts talking to Ben he is shocked. The two begin an unlikely friendship. With the persistance of Colleen, Ben decides to make a documentary about his high school. He cares for Collen but he sees her going down a dangerous path with drugs and alcohol until she lands in the hospital one day. Out of her recovery a romance forms between the two.
Opinion: This is almost exactly The Astonishing Adventures of Fan Boy and Goth Girl! It seems like Barry Lyga just moved the interests of the characters a little bit and made his Kyra a bigger bitch. They might not be exactly the same, but they are very similar indeed. I actually like this lot more then Fan Boy and Goth Girl. This book seems to really portray what teens are really like.
Ideas: I might recommend this to anyone who like stories portraying real teen life. Anyone who liked Rachel Cohn's Gingerbread would probably like this novel, or anyone who liked Fan Boy and Goth Girl. It's not a problem novel because although the character Colleen does have a drug problem it is not the central theme of the story. I would display this as a novel portraying teenage life.
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