‘Crunch’ by Leslie Connor

I subscribe to various email lists related to library services to children, and in response to requests for recommendations on two very different topics, one book immediately came to mind.

I posted a review of Crunch by Leslie Connor (Katherine Tegan Books, 2010) in December 2013.

More recently, I recommended the book across one of the listservs I subscribe to. My recommendation was in response to a request for books with an environmental theme.

Set in present-day, Crunch depicts what happens when gasoline supplies abruptly disappear.

A long-distance trucker and his wife are stranded several hundred miles from home. In the couple’s absence, their children must manage the family’s bicycle repair business while meeting family commitments. And this small family business is quite suddenly one of the ONLY things keeping people on the roads.

When I read the book, I was particularly struck by what I viewed as a plausible alternative to auto and fuel dependence, but the book also conveys a very strong theme of children meeting adult responsibilities.

So much so, that I recommended it again, across another listserv, in response to a request for stories in which children work together to solve a problem.

The Marriss family siblings truly “engage as active citizens,” to cite a quality referred to by the person who posted the request. Through their actions, these young people strengthen/sustain their community.