Crutcher, C. (2007). Deadline.
NY: Greenwillow.
Deadline tells the story of Ben Wolf, an eighteen-year-old high school senior who is dying from a rare blood disease. He decides to forgo treatment and live his last year to the fullest.
Ben lives in an
extremely small town in Idaho where everyone has known him from birth. He is short
of stature and has an uncommonly close relationship with his younger brother,
Cody, who is taller than he is. Ben goes for his sports physical; his doctor finds
his disease and tells him that he has less than a year to live. Ben decides not
to tell anybody, and he decides to deny treatment. The doctor is upset by this
decision, but Ben threatens to take legal action against him if he tells
anybody. He has the right to make his own choices since he is eighteen years old.
He
agrees to meet with a counselor to placate the doctor, but the counselor can't
handle his case because it affects her too emotionally. Ben doesn't appreciate
her replacement and denies therapy.
Knowing that his time
is limited, Ben decides to take full advantage of every moment he has left on
the earth. Despite his small stature, he joins the football team. He is athletic but excels in cross-country. He also decides to try to get the attention of
Dallas Suzuki, one of the smartest and most beautiful girls in the school in
his opinion.
Ben is interested in
literature, and he reads nonfiction. It frustrates him that teachers,
especially his history teacher Mr. Lambeer, educate the students using biased
material. Ben uses his own knowledge of the literature he has read to stand up
to the teacher repetitively, challenging common precepts Mr. Lambeer uses the
classroom. He decides that for his class project, he will try to get a street
in his mostly Caucasian town named after Malcolm X. Mr. Lambeer threatens to
fail him if he does this, but Ben doesn't care because he knows he won't be
going to college since he is going to die anyway.
Ben begins to develop
close relationships with Dallas, and he also Rudy, the town drunk. They both have big secrets like Ben. They both share their secrets with Ben. Ben is scared to share his own secret after
they confide in him. The more he keeps his illness a secret, the more difficult
it becomes because he feels as if he is betraying those that are closest to
him. The only being he can talk with about the situation is Hey-Soos, who comes
to talk with him when he is in a dream state.
The football season
goes extremely well, and Ben and Cody have an incredible season together.
At first Ben doesn't
feel any of the negative effects of his illness. As he cultivates his
relationships and continues his quest for the pure truth in other areas, Ben
realizes that life is more convoluted than he originally thought. He realizes
it is wrong to keep his impending death away from those that love him, so he
tells them about it. They help him through his final days.
The literary element
that stood out to me in this story is conflict.
There are two main conflicts in the story. The first is external. Ben goes to get a physical from the doctor
and finds out he has a blood disease that is killing him and has only a year to
live (man vs. nature). The second
conflict is internal. Ben is constantly
debating on weather or not he should tell his family and friends that he is
dying. The read is constantly reminded
of these two conflicts. Almost every
page references them in one way or another.
The book begins a bit
slow. It took me reading half the book
to really get into it, but the ending was sad, but good.
I could not find any
free teacher resources, but I found this neat flip book activity on Teachers
Pay Teachers. I have included the link.
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