The Big Game of Everything

by Chris Lynch

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060740345
• ISBN13: 9780060740344
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.0" x 7.1"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 and higher

Customer Reviews

A wonderful, funny and touching novel that will remind readers of what's really important in life

Thirteen-year-old Jock thinks his family is incredibly weird. His hippy, vegetarian parents named him Union Jack (though at age six he wanted it to be pronounced Onion Jock). They insist that everyone --- including their own kids --- call them by their first names. Leonard and Peach run a barbershop/manicurist/palm reading establishment called Fame & Fortune, but they don't give a hoot about making lots of money. They're the complete opposite of Jock's grandfather, who believes that the key to happiness is cold hard cash. He owns and manages his own golf course, all 13 holes of it (Grampus is in the process of constructing the 14th one himself). Jock's younger brother, Egon, takes after his grandfather in the money grubbing area, but is about a hundred times worse. Another personality flaw of his is that he takes great pleasure in picking on Jock (or Dingleberry, as he calls him), both physically and verbally, though he is the first one to come to Jock's rescue when bullies like the Noblett brothers threaten him. Despite his eccentric family, Jock looks forward to the approaching summer vacation as he and Egon will work at the golf course. Jock loves the compound, as they call it, and thinks it's the greatest place in the world, owned and managed by the greatest person in the world. Even though the pay isn't very consistent, and he sometimes has to clean the public restrooms, Jock is happiest when at the golf course. He doesn't even like to play the sport, though he enjoys hitting balls at the driving range. But then something happens that changes everything. Grampus suffers a stroke, and his loved ones discover that the golf course is failing financially. As he slowly starts to recover, Grampus comes to see life in a new light. Maybe having money isn't so important after all. The entire family pitches in to save the course and, in the process, brings a fresh glow and a new atmosphere to the compound. Jock even begins to see some change in himself and digs up the courage to stand up to one of the Noblett brothers. His intense and discovery-filled summer proves that having money and objects aren't the important things in life; love and family are, even relatives as strange as Jock's. Chris Lynch's latest book is a hilarious look at a world that has gone crazy with mixed-up priorities, valuing money and toys over family and friends. Lynch's sense of humor really brings this meaningful story to life, along with a cast of colorful characters. Jock especially shines, with a wisdom beyond his years and a special gift of insight into others. THE BIG GAME OF EVERYTHING is a wonderful, funny and touching novel that will remind readers of what's really important in life. --- Reviewed by Chris Shanley-Dillman, author of FINDING MY LIGHT and THE BLACK POND

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

Jock has lined up the perfect summer job working at his grandfather's golf course. He figures work will probably be sporadic and he looks forward to racing around the greens in one of the golf carts from Grampus's mighty fleet. But sure enough, just like in golf, he slices. It turns out he and his bumbling, antagonistic, younger brother, Egon, are the only caretakers Grampus has hired for the summer. And the mighty fleet turns out to be only two golf carts, and Grampus uses one of them for his dates with the lesson of the week. Like Jock, Grampus embraces the sun and heat, and somehow it's always Jock, not Egon, who gets the chore of rubbing sunscreen onto Grampus's back so he can work wearing only a kilt, creating the 13th hole of the course with his enormous digger. Is this crazy loon the same grandfather Jock has always admired? Is his life still the life Jock envies and yearns for? When two old friends of Grampus' show up, flashing their bling and offering to purchase his cherished snooker table, Jock begins to see a side of Grampus that he's never seen before. Leonard, Jock's flakey barbershop dad, who tries to convince people not to cut their hair; Peaches, his psychic, palm-reading mother; and even Grammus, Jock's rich and independent grandmother, surprise Jock as they come together to help Grampus save his golf course. Jock finds out that yes, life's about playing the big game of everything, but more than that, life is about family. In THE BIG GAME OF EVERYTHING, Chris Lynch finds humor in the mundane, and turns the ordinary into the unexpected. This novel is great for a lazy afternoon when what you want most is a quiet, calming read, with laugher sprinkled throughout. Reviewed by: Cana Rensberger