Cruise Control
How sick is this: I'm the major jock-stud in high school, but my brother has the brain of a badminton birdie and a body to match. I've got everything and he's got nothing. I'm a three-year, three-sport letterman and Shawn can't even stand up! Like I said, sick, huh?\ It's hard to be a brother to someone who doesn't even know you're there. How can you talk to him when he can't understand a thing you say? How can you listen to him when he can't speak a word? How can you love him when he's so...
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How sick is this: I′m the major jock-stud in high school, but my brother has the brain of a badminton birdie and a body to match. I′ve got everything and he′s got nothing. I′m a three-year, three-sport letterman and Shawn can′t even stand up! Like I said, sick, huh? It′s hard to be a brother to someone who doesn′t even know you′re there. How can you talk to him when he can′t understand a thing you say? How can you listen to him when he can′t speak a word? How can you love him when he′s so messed up, he can′t love you back? And how can you have a life of your own when your father bailed on the family, leaving you to be the "man of the house"? Fueled by rage at what has happened to his family, Paul is ready to explode. And he is haunted by something even worse -- something he can never tell anyone. It is something he will have to face if he is to have any hope of a future at all. While Cruise Control is a companion to Terry Trueman′s Printz Honor book, Stuck in Neutral, it is the completely independent story of a family′s "other" son -- the one who is healthy, gifted, normal. It is a courageously hopeful story told with power, compassion, and humor.Publishers WeeklyIn Cruise Control by Terry Trueman, narrator Paul, brother to Shawn, the subject of Stuck in Neutral, takes center stage. His direct rapport with readers ("My only brother is a veg. Yep, a full-fledged, drooling, fourteen-year-old idiot") lends an immediacy to Paul's struggle with having a brother who suffers from cerebral palsy and the father who abandoned them. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
\ Publishers WeeklyIn Cruise Control by Terry Trueman, narrator Paul, brother to Shawn, the subject of Stuck in Neutral, takes center stage. His direct rapport with readers ("My only brother is a veg. Yep, a full-fledged, drooling, fourteen-year-old idiot") lends an immediacy to Paul's struggle with having a brother who suffers from cerebral palsy and the father who abandoned them. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ From The CriticsPaul McDaniel, a high school senior, is a grenade with his hand on the pin. Living in Seattle with his mother, his sister, and his retarded brother nearly pushes him over the edge. He despises his father for leaving the family, and he feels responsible for helping his mother with his brother. Paul loves and defends Shawn, although he guiltily resents him at times wondering what his life would be like without him. Sports, especially basketball, provide Paul with an outlet to release his anxiety; still, he struggles with how his family situation will affect his future and his dreams of an athletic scholarship to Georgetown University. His friends worry about Paul's angry demeanor, and at times step in to keep him from inflicting pain on his provokers. However, when Paul's mom confronts him with the reason his father "abandoned" the family, he is able to release the pent up anger and view his situation from a more realistic and accurate perspective. 2004, Harpertempest, 148 pp., Ages young adult. \ —Rhea Spears\ \ \ VOYAWriting from the perspective of Paul McDaniel, star athlete and brother of Shawn McDaniel, Trueman takes up the story he began in his award-winning Stuck in Neutral (HarperCollins, 2000/VOYA December 2000). Readers learned there that although Shawn's body is wracked with cerebral palsy so overwhelming that he appears to be a complete vegetable, his cognitive function is actually normal. No one knows that Shawn is aware of everything going on around him, but he simply cannot communicate in any way. As the first book ends, unresolved, Shawn wonders whether his father will actually follow through on the mercy killing he contemplates for his son. In this companion volume, readers follow Shawn's brother through a championship basketball season, but even more, they follow Paul as he comes to grips with his terrible temper, feelings of guilt, and the dysfunctional relationship that he has with his father. All his problems are rooted in the fact that he has a "profoundly developmentally disabled" brother. Paul, extremely successful in sports and academics, suffers emotionally so terribly that he can only express his feelings by fighting. Unaware of how much he has in common with his father, he interprets his father's separation from the family as a cowardly abandonment. In the end, Paul learns that he does not have to be the victim of fate and that everything is not as it seems. The ending is a little too fairy tale, too pat, but the conflict development throughout the book brilliantly portrays the emotional distress of a teenager who must cope with a handicapped sibling. VOYA CODES: 4Q 4P M J (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School, defined asgrades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2004, HarperTempest, 148p., and PLB Ages 11 to 15. \ —James Blasingame\ \ \ \ \ Children's LiteratureThis companion to the Printz Honor Book Stuck in Neutral takes the same events, and looks at them through the eyes of a different character. Paul McDaniel, older brother of handicapped Shawn, has conflicted feelings about his brother's condition, and harbors anger over the perceived abandonment by his father. This has created a violent streak in Paul, and a sense that he cannot leave his family to go to college. Unlike the original book, which was excellently written and focused clearly in the mind of a person trapped by cerebral palsy, this one does not create a likeable character, and feels like a jumble of contrived and disconnected story threads. The basic premise that Paul, too, feels trapped by circumstances does not hold up in light of the fact that his father provides an abundance of money for the family, and his mother lovingly cares for Shawn. Considering the intended audience, there is also a disturbing lack of consequences for dangerous behaviors. Paul nearly kills a person for almost no reason, yet he is never brought to task for it. Likewise, he drives a car while seriously drunk, with no repercussions. The main theme of the first book—euthanasia—seems only randomly thrown into this story, and readers not familiar with the original story will have no clue to what could actually be occurring. Fans of the first book will likely be disappointed with this one, and readers new to this author may find the story baffling. 2004, HarperCollins/HarperTempest, Ages 12 to 16. \ —Jane Harrington\ \ \ \ \ KLIATTThis is a companion to Trueman's acclaimed Stuck in Neutral (reviewed in KLIATT in May 2000), which was told from the point of view of Shawn, a 14-year-old boy severely afflicted with cerebral palsy who thinks his father is trying to kill him. In Cruise Control, Shawn's older brother Paul is the narrator. While Shawn is a "veg," as Paul puts it, wheelchair-bound and unable to communicate, Paul is a gifted athlete. Shawn is having more and more seizures, and Paul is torn between love for him and hating the way he is, while feeling responsible for taking care of the family. Their father, who wrote a famous poem about Shawn and has won a Pulitzer Prize, has moved out, and Paul detests him for it. In fact, Paul is full of hate and anger much of the time, and he has trouble controlling his violent temper. He beats up a stranger who nearly ran over a child, and then learns a lesson when his best friend is jailed for beating up his abusive stepfather. His mother finally explains that she had asked his heartbroken father to move out, because she was unable to meet everyone's needs; he didn't desert the family. She also urges Paul to make a life for himself, and assures him that it's fine for him to go off to college to follow his dreams. Trueman's own son has cerebral palsy, which makes this terse tale even more credible and affecting. Paul's voice is convincing, and his suffering, his rage, and his conflicting emotions are portrayed well. This is a disturbing but ultimately hopeful tale about anger and love, and a must-read for anyone who read Stuck in Neutral and wondered what happened next. KLIATT Codes: JS*—Exceptional book, recommended for junior and senior highschool students. 2004, HarperCollins, 160p., and (le). Ages 12 to 18. \ —Paula Rohrlick\ \ \ \ \ Kirkus ReviewsAngry Paul is the brother of Shawn, the severely disabled narrator of Trueman's Stuck in Neutral (2000). Paul is an overachiever with straight A's and is the top athlete in the school. He's the quarterback, the third baseman and right now the go-to guy in hoops. Paul's mad at his dad for leaving the family while they struggle to deal with the burden of caring for Shawn, mad at the world for the way it sees Shawn, and mad at himself for not being the brother he would like to be. Mom does nothing to help Paul feel free to pursue his own interests and future, nor does sister Cindy's patience with Shawn. Dad is gaining fame for his discussion of the issues around disability, and Paul's fury and disgust focus on him. Readers who know Shawn from the previous encounter will enjoy an added layer of understanding, but every reader will understand Paul's frustrations and fears. A minor plot line relating to Paul's shooting partner Tim helps to illuminate the ways in which anger can change lives. A riveting read with a sports flair that resolves too quickly to be quite realistic. (Fiction. YA)\ \
