Ultimate Sports (30 page)

When you don’t respond, she comes on in. Even with her standing up, you have to sit on the bed for her to cradle your head in her arms.

The holder of a master’s degree from the writing program at Emerson College in Boston, Chris Lynch is the author of several highly acclaimed novels about teenagers, beginning with
Shadow Boxer
, an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults. With humor and sensitivity,
Shadow Boxer
explores the rocky relationship between two brothers whose father died from injuries received during his boxing career. The older brother, George, is determined that twelve-year-old Monty will not follow in their father’s footsteps.

Family relationships also figure prominently in
Iceman
and
Gypsy Davey
. In
Iceman
, Eric’s father lives vicariously through his son’s violent hockey games, and Eric’s only close friend is a man who works at the local funeral home. Eric’s violence on the ice brings his team victories, but to him they become increasingly meaningless. In
Gypsy Davey
, the title character grows up in a tattered household whose members are too busy to love one another because they are desperately trying to escape
the misery of their own lives. So Davey sets out to find love elsewhere.

Mr. Lynch’s most recent novel,
Slot Machine
, grew out of the same issue that inspired “The Hobbyist”: the attitude that American males are somehow inferior if they are not neck-deep in sports. The novel is about three friends who go to a camp run by their new high school. The camp’s leaders try to slot the campers into manageable, comfortable, stifling categories, but not everyone is willing to be shaped into the expected roles. Like all Mr. Lynch’s novels, this one focuses on identity and self-worth.

When he himself was a teenager, Chris Lynch participated in all kinds of sports, with special interests in baseball, street hockey, soccer, and football, until he grew distant from the “organized” part of organized sports. Understandably, his current athletic passion is running. Alone.

Published by
Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers
a division of
Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
1540 Broadway
New York, New York 10036

Copyright © 1995 by Donald R. Gallo

“Joyriding” Copyright © 1995 by Jim Naughton
“Fury” Copyright © 1995 by T. Ernesto Bethancourt
“Superboy” Copyright © 1995 by Chris Crutcher
“If You Can’t Be Lucky…” Copyright © 1995 by Carl Deuker
“Stealing for Girls” Copyright © 1995 by Will Weaver
“Shark Bait” Copyright © 1995 by Graham Salisbury
“Cutthroat” Copyright © 1995 by Norma Fox Mazer
“The Assault on the Record” Copyright © 1995 by Stephen Hoffius
“The Defender” Copyright © 1995 by Robert Lipsyte
“Just Once” Copyright © 1995 by Thomas J. Dygard
“Brownian Motion” Copyright © 1995 by Virginia Euwer Wolff
“Bones” Copyright © 1995 by Todd Strasser
“Sea Changes” Copyright © 1995 by Tessa Duder
“The Gospel According to Krenzwinkle” Copyright © 1995 by David Klass
“Falling off the Empire State Building” Copyright © 1995 by Harry Mazer
“The Hobbyist” Copyright © 1995 by Chris Lynch

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. For information address Delacorte Press, 1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036.

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eISBN: 978-0-307-56843-4

RL:6.5

November 1997

v3.0