Extreme Elvin - Softcover

Lynch, Chris

3.43

42 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 006447142X ISBN 13: 9780064471428

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2001

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I used to have a mother, and a friend, and anotherfriend. Now I got relationships.

Elvin Bishop is fourteen--an official Young Adult. Having barely survived the sports camp that he and his best friends, Frankie and Mikie, attended in SLOT MACHINE, Elvin is actually ready for high school to begin. Or so he thinks.

Suddenly, he's hurled into a whole now social scene, where relationships-the right relationships--are the name of the game. Leave it to Elvin to fall for exactly the wrong kind of girl--the kind of girl who is definitely not a part of any guy's cool plan. And that's just the beginning of his problems. With an appetite that forces him to shop at the Big and Tall, a mother who still talks to her long-dead husband, and a nasty case of hemorrhoids, is becoming cool something that Elvin can even pull off?

00-01 Tayshas High School Reading List

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Review:

Look out world, Elvin Bishop is back, and he's better--if a little less bigger--than ever. Author Chris Lynch's overweight antihero has slimmed down a bit since his debut in Slot Machine, and has moved from the frying pan of sports camp into the fires of high school. With the help of his two best friends, Frankie and Mike, Elvin prepares to conquer the hormone-drenched horrors of ninth grade. Almost immediately he finds himself dealing with a bad case of hemorrhoids ("No, it doesn't hurt much... run and find me a tree branch that's on fire and I'll show ya"), surviving a traumatizing trip to the Big & Tall men's store, and suffering a close encounter of the heartbreaking kind. But when the going gets tough, at least Elvin knows he can depend on his offbeat mom to empathize--even though her loving advice is often given with more than a few grains of sarcasm.

With this second Elvin tale, Lynch has once again hit the funny bone on the head. Teens (if they can stop giggling long enough) will appreciate his graceful way of making adolescent pain evoke sympathetic chuckles. His hilarious portrayal of the nightmare that is young adulthood ("Young adult. You know that one was dreamed up by an old adult") makes clear that rather than poking fun at teens' woes, Lynch is laughing right alongside them. (Ages 12 to 15) --Jennifer Hubert

About the Author:

Chris Lynch is a National Book Award finalist and the author of many highly acclaimed books for young adults, including The Big Game of Everything, Who the Man, and the Michael L. Printz Honor Book Freewill; Iceman, Shadow boxer, Gold Dust, and Slot Machine, all ALA Best Books for Young Adults; and Extreme Elvin. He also mentors aspiring writers and teaches in the creative writing program at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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