Skip to main content
Mechanics' Institute

Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection

Contact Mechanics' Institute

Cover of Athletic Shorts.

Cover image from Publishers Weekly.

Image source

Athletic Shorts

Creator

Chris Crutcher

Date

Published 1991

Format

Book

A young adult sports-story collection with LGBTQ family, AIDS, award, and challenge-history contexts.

Young adult fictionSports storiesGay adultsAIDSChallenged books
Contact About AccessBack to catalog

Overview

Athletic Shorts is Chris Crutcher’s 1991 young adult collection of six sports stories, published by Greenwillow Books. It belongs in the collection because two stories carry LGBTQ-related family and social themes into issue-driven YA sports fiction. The local catalog highlights A Brief Moment in the Life of Angus Bethune, in which divorced parents have remarried same-sex partners, and In the Time I Get, in which a high school athlete confronts his feelings toward a gay man dying of AIDS. The book also has a strong access record: ALA lists Athletic Shorts among frequently challenged books in both the 1990s and 2000s, while YALSA included it in Crutcher’s Margaret A. Edwards Award body of work. It is both recognized literature and a challenged object.[2][1][3][6]

Sports And Social Issues

Publishers Weekly’s review frames Athletic Shorts as sports fiction that also addresses racism, homophobia, sexism, and conflict with parents. That matters because the collection does not treat sports as escape from social questions. Instead, athletics gives the stories a familiar YA structure through which bodies, identity, shame, courage, and peer culture can be examined. The Tarpey-Schwed item therefore sits differently from picture books: it is not a family-recognition primer, but issue-driven short fiction for older readers.[2]

Same-Sex Parents In YA Short Fiction

The local catalog identifies A Brief Moment in the Life of Angus Bethune as a story in which Angus’s divorced parents are now partnered with people of the same sex. That makes the item useful for tracing same-sex-parent representation beyond picture books. The story’s family structure appears in a narrative about body image, school status, and adolescence. The record should avoid overquoting until the local book is checked, but the catalog evidence is strong enough to show why the title belongs here.[1][2]

AIDS And Gay Adult Care

In the Time I Get gives the collection another kind of LGBTQ context: AIDS, mortality, and a young athlete’s emotional response to a gay man who is dying. Publishers Weekly supports the AIDS plot, and the local catalog identifies the gay adult context. This connects Athletic Shorts to the collection’s HIV/AIDS material while keeping age level and genre in view. The representation is not about gay parenting alone; it is about adolescent ethical growth around illness, stigma, and care.[2][1]

Challenge History

Athletic Shorts has a documented challenge history. ALA lists it among frequently challenged books of the 1990s and 2000s, and the Top Ten archive records 2006 challenge reasons including homosexuality and offensive language. NCAC also records a Michigan school removal after a parent complaint, giving the access history a concrete local episode. The record should not reduce all controversy to sexuality alone, because ALA’s challenge reasons are broader. The value lies in the combination: LGBTQ content, language, YA realism, and repeated public objection.[4][5][6][14]

Timeline

  1. 1991PublicationAthletic Shorts is published and reviewed.[2][8]
  2. 1992Early recognitionLibrary records note early ALA and School Library Journal recognition for the collection.[17]
  3. 1990sChallenge decadeALA lists the book among frequently challenged titles of the 1990s.[4]
  4. 2000Edwards AwardYALSA recognizes Crutcher and includes Athletic Shorts in the honored body of work.[3]
  5. 2000sSecond challenge decadeALA again lists the book among frequently challenged titles.[5]
  6. 2005Michigan removalNCAC reports removal of Athletic Shorts from a Grand Rapids school after a parent complaint.[14]
  7. 2006Top Ten challenge recordALA records challenge reasons including homosexuality and offensive language.[6]
  8. 2010sTeaching rationaleNCTE publishes rationale material for classroom use of Athletic Shorts.[16]

Explore Connections

Browse direct links, shared themes, and nearby publication dates.

Linked records

YA LGBTQ landmark

Annie on My Mind

Both YA works connect LGBTQ content with challenge and access history.

References [6][3]

YA gay-adult comparison

Libby on Wednesday

Both titles place gay adult context inside fiction for older young readers.

References [1]

HIV/AIDS context

My Dad Has HIV

Both records connect young readers, care, and HIV/AIDS or AIDS-era stigma.

References [2]

Picture-book contrast

Heather Has Two Mommies

Heather shows explicit family recognition for younger children; Athletic Shorts carries related themes into YA realism.

References [4]

Shared themes

Young adult fiction

I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip

A landmark 1969 young adult novel, held here with a laid-in Donovan postcard noted in the local catalog.

Young adult fiction

How Far Is Berkeley?

A young adult novel set in Berkeley in the early 1970s, preserved here for its communal-household and women's-community context.

Challenged books

Daddy's Roommate

An early picture book about a child, his divorced parents, and his father's partner Frank.

Young adult fiction

Ghost Pains

A young adult novel by Jane Severance about two sisters, their mother, alcoholism, and lesbian family context.

Nearby dates

Published 1991

Belinda's Bouquet

A body-acceptance picture book in which Daniel's two mothers help Belinda understand that bodies, like flowers, need different kinds of care.

Published 1991

Bonjour, Mr. Satie

A Tomie dePaola picture book read here as coded gay-uncle representation through companion language and Stein-Toklas allusion.

Published in English 1991

Else-Marie and Her Seven Little Daddies

A Swedish alternative-family picture book whose English edition broadens the collection's many-kinds-of-families context.

Published 1991

Families, a Coloring Book

A Michael Willhoite coloring book that presents many family structures, including two mothers and two fathers.

Citation

Athletic Shorts. Chris Crutcher. Greenwillow Books, 1991. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-206.

Showing Plain text citation format.

Sources

Cover image from Publishers Weekly.

  1. Local collection catalog record for Athletic Shorts (Signed by Author) · catalog
  2. Publishers Weekly review of Athletic Shorts · review
  3. YALSA Margaret A. Edwards Award page for Chris Crutcher · award
  4. ALA challenged books, 1990-1999 · ala
  5. ALA challenged books, 2000-2009 · ala
  6. ALA Top Ten challenged books archive · ala
  7. Wikimedia Commons image of Chris Crutcher · image
  8. Open Library ISBN record for Athletic Shorts · library
  9. HarperCollins record for Athletic Shorts · publisher
  10. Chris Crutcher author site · creator
  11. ALA challenged book resources · ala
  12. WorldCat search for Athletic Shorts · library
  13. WorldCat title search for Athletic Shorts and Chris Crutcher · library
  14. NCAC report on Athletic Shorts removal in Michigan school · access
  15. ALA Rainbow Round Table bibliography for gay teens · bibliography
  16. NCTE rationale for Athletic Shorts · education
  17. OverDrive library record for Athletic Shorts · library