Winger

Winger

Smith, A. (2013). Winger. New York: Simon & Schuster.

This story, about a 14-year-old junior boy named Ryan Dean West who attends a private school called Pine Mountain, is humorous while, at the same time, highlighting common, very serious, and very real struggles of the adolescent male today.  Ryan Dean is academically gifted which explains his current standing in high school and is also fairly athletically gifted since he is fast enough to play on the school varsity rugby team with boys much bigger (and more intimidating) than him.  BUT, he is, after all, just 14 and therefore, still not as emotionally developed as the other boys that he is around.  He’s considered the “cute” kid to Annie and Megan and that’s certainly not how he wants to be seen by the girls, especially Annie who he considers himself to be in love with.  Winger, as he is known by his teammates, is often the easy target of the older boys, but he is also sometimes seen as sort of the little brother.  One twist that I was very shocked about was Ryan Dean’s friend Joey, was not only gay, but ended up murdered.  This novel is spot on in the way Smith portrays the relationships among all of the characters and even though it deals with very graphic content, would be suitable for readers in their teens and up because, in spite of language and content, it DOES address subjects inherent to young adults and in a way most of them can identify with.

I know this is going way over the word limit, but the art teacher in me would be remiss if I didn't speak to the wonderfully entertaining illustrations included in the novel that can only add a healthy dose of enjoyment for the reader. :)