Crutcher, C. (2007). Deadline. GreenWillow Books. Ben Wolf is a senior in high school when he finds out that he has a terminal disease while getting a track physical. Since he is eighteen he black males the doctor into keeping the news between the two of them. He wants to live his last year to the fullest without any one feeling sorry for him. That's exactly what he does. He joins football for the first time and becomes a hero along with his brother who is the quarterback. Although Ben is eleven months older than his brother, Cody, they are both seniors in high school. Ben is out to conquer the world and that includes going out with Dallas, a beautiful girl, whom he thinks will never give him the time of day, but to his surprise they end up dating. He finds out that her uncle sexually molested her and she ended up pregnant with whom everyone knows as her little brother, Joe Henry. Ben is also out to help Rudy the town drunk and by doing so he finds out Rudy's big secret of molesting a young boy when he use to be a priest. Although Ben tried helping him. Rudy ended up killing himself because he couldn't live with the shame that because of him the young boy committed suicide. At the same time Ben becomes interested in Malcolm X and decides he wants to prove that his town is still prejudice. He wants to start a petition to name a street after Malcolm X which doesn't end up happening. Instead after Ben dies a wooden sign is put up with the name Malcolm X in the street that Ben wanted to rename. A strength I found was that when Ben spoke to his coach about how the coach felt when his girlfriend died he realized that it was worse to die unexpectedly rather than to have the time to say goodbye. He knew he had to tell the people he loved about his sickness. Other books similar to this one are Before I Die by J. Downham and Knights of the Hill Country by Tim Tharp. Crutcher has also written Whale Talk and Ironman to name a few. What I learned after reading this novel was that although it might seem as if we are the only ones with problems or secrets it's not true. Ben found out he wasn't the only one with a secret.