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Overview
The Big Game of EverythingChapter One
D'ya Love Me?
You have to love your family. You do, even if you don't, right? You don't have to agree with them or appreciate them or go to concerts with them or even understand them, but you have to love them. It's a rule, and it's the kind of rule you don't break unless you're some kind of animal.
I do love my brother, but I don't know that I would if I were not required to. We're not the same. It can happen in a family. Even though you get all the same genetic stuff, and you get raised in the same setup, you can wind up seeing and feeling things a whole different way from the guy just one bed over. It's kind of crazy, when you think about it, but it's nature's way. The payback, I guess, is that while you have to love your family, your family has to love you too, no matter what.
"Ya? Who says?"
The Big Game of Everything. Copyright © by Chris Lynch. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.Synopsis
You have to love your family. You do, even if you don't, right?
You don't have to understand them or play tennis with them, but you have to love them. It's a rule, and it's the kind of rule you don't break unless you're some kind of animal.
My brother happens to be some kind of animal. My sister rides this sweet gold Honda scooter and has amazing hair. You'd hate her. My parents are vegetarian let-the-sunshine-in freaks. Lovable freaks, but freaks all the same. My grandfather possesses a shocking comb-over, a kilt, about half of his original marbles, and his own golf complex. This summer, we are all working for him. It is going to be two hot, lucrative, carefree months of paradise.
Or, possibly something else.
KLIATT
Jock is looking forward to two blissful summer months helping out at his grandfather's 13-hole golf complex, but his oddball family members have plans of their own. Jock's devilish younger brother Egon, id to Jock's superego, just wants to get rich; his sister Meredith just wants to make out with her boyfriend; his parents are sweet but generally clueless hippies; and his Grampus, despite the golf complex, isn't happy with what he has. Grampus feels he's losing at life, "the Big Game of Everything," because he's not ostentatiously rich like his obnoxious old friends, who show up and joyfully wreak havoc. Jock can't understand why Grampus is so hung up on the idea of winning when to his mind the man already has it all, but in the end his wacky but loving family manages to make it all right. More episodic than plot-driven, this rollicking tale about some true eccentrics features memorable characters and relationships: between long-suffering Jock and his tormenter Egon, in particular, and between Jock and his Grampus. It's an affirmation of the value of family, despite their differences, and the dialog is often a delight. This offbeat story will appeal to anyone with a funny bone. Reviewer: Paula Rohrlick
Editorials
VOYA -
Jock is convinced that he is the only sane member of his family, but he is comforted by the fact that, crazy or not, you gotta love your family and they have to love you. Jock and his brother are excited by the possibilities that the summer may hold as they begin their regular summer jobs at their grandfather's eclectic golf course. Conflicts arise because of local bullies and their grandfather's two old friends. The retired friends are more successful than the boy's grandfather, and they constantly seek to gain more in "the big game of everything," a daily power struggle for material possessions, relationships, and status. As his grandfather's health fails and roles shift, Jock finds a way to win the game on his own terms. This Printz Honor-winning author offers up another touching and offbeat novel full of delightfully skewed humor. Despite their distinctly over-the-top nature, the characters ring true and there are moments that are alternately tender and hilarious. Readers will enjoy meeting Jock's eccentric but memorable family. This valuable purchase would generate a lively discussion in a book group or class read-aloud. Thoughtful readers will likely consider their place-and evaluate their need to participate-in "the big game of everything" in their own lives. Reviewer: Sherrie WilliamsKLIATT -
Jock is looking forward to two blissful summer months helping out at his grandfather's 13-hole golf complex, but his oddball family members have plans of their own. Jock's devilish younger brother Egon, id to Jock's superego, just wants to get rich; his sister Meredith just wants to make out with her boyfriend; his parents are sweet but generally clueless hippies; and his Grampus, despite the golf complex, isn't happy with what he has. Grampus feels he's losing at life, "the Big Game of Everything," because he's not ostentatiously rich like his obnoxious old friends, who show up and joyfully wreak havoc. Jock can't understand why Grampus is so hung up on the idea of winning when to his mind the man already has it all, but in the end his wacky but loving family manages to make it all right. More episodic than plot-driven, this rollicking tale about some true eccentrics features memorable characters and relationships: between long-suffering Jock and his tormenter Egon, in particular, and between Jock and his Grampus. It's an affirmation of the value of family, despite their differences, and the dialog is often a delight. This offbeat story will appeal to anyone with a funny bone. Reviewer: Paula RohrlickSchool Library Journal
Gr 7-10
Introspective and curious, Jock is considering questions many people never get around to puzzling out: What is the true measure of success? Is it money? Or, is it somehow achievable merely by defining one's own vision of happiness and making it happen? While most young adults' values are defined by friends and family, Jock's moral compass lacks an obvious pole to fix upon. His hippieish parents happily operate a barbershop with a backward business plan based on convincing would-be patrons to let their hair grow, and his younger brother brazenly takes materialistic self-interest, snarkiness, and sloth to laughable heights. Jock's main challenge in this crash course in self-discovery lies in figuring out if the employer he idolizes, the owner of the underutilized golf complex on which he works-and who also happens to be his grandfather-is a worthy role model or a tortured train in the midst of derailment. Unlike Jock's parents, Grampus claims to believe in entrepreneurial ambition. He pursues those goals in idiosyncratic fashion, running and expanding his 13-hole golf course on his own terms, often shoeless and shirtless-and sometimes in a kilt. Jock begins to wonder if his grandfather's a winner, a loser, or something in between-until a series of unexpected visits and a mild stroke force the answer. The Big Game of Everything is a funny and thoughtful novel that considers the true nature of class, happiness, and success through the eyes of a teenage boy.-Jeffrey Hastings, Highlander Way Middle School, Howell, MI