First Quarter SSR

     Now Playing: Stoner & Spaz II, by Ron Koertge, is the sequel to a book that I never read, but afterwards wish I would have. This book further developed the characters that were in the first book, so it was as if I walked into a movie half way through. Anyway, the main character is a teenage boy named Ben Bancroft who has cerebral palsy and is obsessed with film making. His "girlfriend" is named Colleen Minou who is a girl that all the guys are in love with and she often hops from guy to guy, all the while coming back to Ben. She actively drinks and does drugs and gets into trouble doing things she shouldn't be doing, with people she shouldn't be with. However, at the end of the day, she always comes back to Ben. Ben lives with his grandma who of course disapproves of Colleen, so is overjoyed when Ben meets a new girl named Amy (a.k.a. AJ), who is an upper class, clean cut girl who also has an interest in film. Throughout the book, Ben makes films about the life around him, all while trying to figure out if these two girls see him as "the boy with cerebral palsy" or if they're actually see past that, as well as trying to decide if he should continue giving Colleen more and more chances, or if he should move past her and go off with AJ instead.
     I've never read a romance book or anything similar, but I found this book in the library and chose  it the day of the first SSR because I didn't have any idea what I wanted to read. If i had known what this book was going to be about in the first place I probably wouldn't have read it, but now that I've finished the book, I'm glad that I did. The author occasionally uses humor, which kept the book interesting and was very good at developing the characters personalities and portraying how they felt without directly saying it. The entire plot was also very easy to relate to as all of the characters are in high school. It touches on things like how drugs affect people's behaviors, the impulsiveness of a teenager, and other issues that draw out emotion. As I got more into the book, it never got boring and overall I enjoyed it a lot. I would recommend this book to pretty much anybody especially those in high school, because even if you haven't read this type of book before like me, it's very easy to relate to and does a great job of capturing the reader.


Kaleb Stephenson