Winger
by Andrew Smith
Illustrated by Sam Bosma
Series: Winger #1
Publication: Simon & Schuster on
Format: Paperback, 464 pages
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Coming of Age, Humor, Sports
Jacket copy:
Ryan Dean West's life is complicated. He's a fourteen-year-old junior at Pine Mountain, a boarding school for rich kids. He's stuck rooming with the biggest jerk on the rugby team in the dorm for miscreants and troublemakers. And he's totally in love with his best friend, Annie, who thinks of him as a little kid. As Ryan Dean tries to get a handle on school, life, and rugby, he finds himself muddling through a lot of decisions and making some major mistakes along the way. But nothing can prepare him for what comes next. And when the unthinkable happens, Ryan Dean has to find a way to hold on to the important things - no matter what.
Winger was the most entertaining book I've read in a long time. Ryan Dean's personality draws you into the book from page one (as he contemplates life with his head stuck in a toilet). Always very humorous, author Andrew Smith
does not disappoint.
Like many others, I for one love
books that take place at boarding school. With parents out of the question and supervisors not much of a threat, you know these kids are going to be getting themselves into a whole lot of mischief during the semester. Ryan Dean West was definitely not an exception as for his junior year at Pine Mountain, he found himself living in O-Hall, as the jacket copy describes it, "the dorm for miscreants and troublemakers."
The reader follows along Ryan Dean as he journeys his way through high school, as he constantly struggles with being the "little kid" of the grade. His age often sets him apart from others, and does so
especially when Annie's in the question. Throughout the story, we get to follow along as Ryan Dean untiringly pursues her.
One of the greatest parts about
Winger is that as the reader, you truly feel as if you're inside of Winger's, Ryan Dean's, head. Author Andrew Smith did not leave a single thought of this fourteen-year-old boy's mind out of the text, so every reader is guaranteed to a good laugh! I myself burst out in hysterics more than a couple of times.
Another awesome part about
Winger was that Ryan Dean West's drawings were included periodically between chapters. These illustrations, comics, and graphs were all too entertaining to look over and read. However, be prepared that not
all of the story is quite as good-natured and fun as the pages make it seem.
So all in all? Pick up
Winger and you're in for 448 pages of amusing dialogue and entertaining plot all dispersed with
the occasional a whole lot of hilarious (sometimes perverted) fourteen-year-old boy thoughts.
