3 March 2002 STONER AND SPAZ by Ron Koertge, Candlewick Press, May 2002

Relatively early on in my career as a "children's" bookbuyer I had the great fortune to participate in a day-long workshop discussing "teen" literature.  The experts from whom I was to learn that day were Michael Cart and Richard Jackson.  Between them, they made several points that have stuck with me as I define and evaluate young adult literature.  Among the words of wisdom that day were:

Adolescents create and re-create themselves on a daily basis as they search for their identity. Good teen literature frequently provides characters whose roles teen readers can try on vicariously as if they were  cloaks.  Good teen literature frequently poses more questions than it provides answers.

That day's presentations were the inspiration for my creating a separate young adult section--after a week of quoting the experts I was given the okay to purchase and shelve those books away from the kids' stuff, in the process becoming the "children's and young adult" buyer.  This division, of course, is the rule rather than the exception in bookstores and libraries today.

STONER AND SPAZ, set in LA, is the latest, perfect example of what young adult fiction is all about. 

In addition, STONER AND SPAZ is a book that pays homage to film the way SEEK does to radio.

Ben (Spaz) Bancroft, a teen "cinefile" whose aloofness is the result of his self-consciousness over his dragging an arm and a leg due to cerebral palsy, tells us the story of his entanglement with Colleen (Stoner) Minou, who is as engaging, witty, and tough as Mona Lisa Vito, Marisa Tomei's character in My Cousin Vinnie.  Colleen's boyfriend, Ed, is studying to be a drug lord.  Early on, as Ben waits to hand over the report on THE GREAT GATSBY for which Colleen has hit him up, he gives us a look at Ed in action:

"Waiting there I feel, I don't know anthropological, I guess.  I just need a pair of binoculars and a field guide to watch Ed Dorn in his black jeans and black T-shirt make the rounds, moving from the gangstas in their huge pants through the Mexican tough guys and into the Asian kung-fu fighters.  Each clique has a different handshake, and Ed knows them all.  He knows which girl's hand to grab and rub over his shaved head, which brother to joke with, which guy's Pepsi to snatch and take a sip of, which one to lean into and whisper.  Colleen walks a few steps behind.  She wears knee-high silver boots and looks like someone from a different galaxy."

When Colleen catches up with Ben, he mentions to her:

"'I was watching Ed in action.  He's like Louis the Fourteenth,' I said, 'moving through the gardens at Versailles dispensing favors.'"

"'Louis better watch his ass,' says Colleen.  'This is Ed's turf.'"

Ben has been raised by his grandmother, who dresses him in prep garb and who meets Colleen when she invites herself for a ride home in Grandma's Cadillac and then endears herself to Grandma by immediately puking out the window.  Ben has never given Grandma a bit of trouble before.  She cannot understand his growing involvement with Colleen:

"'What is it exactly that you see in her?  Besides the narcotics, she's so profane and...'  She thinks for a few seconds.  "So badly decorated.'"

What Ben sees in Colleen is that she treats his condition so honestly and matter-of-factly.  In turn, he makes her feel like a high school kid, which is in such contrast to the scary world of drugs, clubs, and thugs in which she's immersed.  And while this is a uniquely descriptive and extremely fun story, it is no fairy tale.  When it's over we're left heavy on the side of unanswered questions.  I was also left with a profound sadness for having to end my relationship with two characters I came so quickly to like and care so much about--Stoner and Spaz.

Richie Partington

http://richiespicks.com

BudNotBuddy@aol.com