Crunch by Leslie Connor

Dewey Mariss lives with his parents, two sisters and two brothers on a small farm right off of a highway in New England. They run a bike shop on the side to help add a little extra cash. When his parents go away for a little trip they leave Dewey and his older sister Lil in charge. While the parents are gone, there is a fuel crunch. Suddenly there is no gasoline at the gas stations. The parents are stranded away from home with no way to get back. The bike shop, on the other hand, is booming because everyone needs bikes for transportation. Dewey and Lil have to take the role of parents to get the family through the crisis, but as they face mounting fix-it orders, and disappearing bike parts, it starts to get too big for two teenagers to handle. The book has an interesting premise. What would happen if suddenly all the gasoline ran out? How would people react and what would they do to get by? The problems and solutions in the book, however, are too easy. If that were to really happen I think people would react much more drastically than they did in the book. Dewey and Lil are model kids. They are responsible, sensitive to their siblings needs and kind to their grumpy neighbor. It is all a little too picture perfect to be believable, but it was an OK story that brought up some interesting issues. (330 p)