Crash by Jerry Spinelli is a story of an unlikely hero that challenges many of the conventions of young adult novels. Instead of a serious, introspective protagonist like so many books geared at a teen literary audience, the title character of Crash is a jock and a football player. At the beginning of the novel, Crash is very intolerant of people who are different from him and who threaten his masculine identity. Over the course of the book he gradually grows to appreciate and even befriend people who are not part of the athletic culture he embraces. As a result, he makes new friends and even wins the heart of the prettiest girl in school. The book's theme continually underlines the possibilities of change and the fact that appearances are often deceptive. The plot revolves around Crash's relationship with Penn Webb, a sensitive, underdeveloped young boy who is the child of vegetarian, Quaker hippies. Penn desperately wants...

At the beginning of the book, Penn seems like an easy target: he has only one toy and his parents serve oat burgers to Crash when he is forced to visit for dinner. Crash is aghast that Penn has no G.I. Joes or television to watch. Despite his better instincts, he finds himself impressed with some of the food and the family, but cannot admit this to himself. "Dessert was gingerbread squares with warm lemon sauce. I ate six of them and got out of there" (Spinelli 26).
Although Crash's first encounter with the Webb family is somewhat ambivalent, when he describes Penn to his friend and fellow football player Mike, the negative behavior towards Penn begins to escalate. Penn is scrawny, and rather than trying out for the football team, he actually wants to become a cheerleader. The boys play more and more pranks on…