STOTAN by Chris Crutcher

A STOTAN is half Stoic and half Spartan in the Greek tradition. The plot of STOTAN is centered around 4 senior swimmers. Each has his own problems--and they are typical of what Crutcher writes about (child abuse, apathetic parents, no parents, love issues, bullies, sports...). It is the last year for a swim team at the jock school, Robert Frost High. The swimmers want to do as well as they can, but of course they cannot forsee the many challenges they will face duing the year.

I checked this one out from the public library. I think I mentioned before that Crutcher writes YA, and much of it is not appropriate for middle schoool. As a matter of fact, he has been at the top of the list of challenged authors for the last 10 years! This book is really pretty tame compared to many of his books!