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The Whistling Toilets
Sixteen-year-old Stan Claxton is recruited to coach his best friend, Ginny, through a local tennis tournament and find out why she has fallen into a slump, in a colorful romantic comedy filled with a quirky assortment of eccentric characters.
- GenresYoung AdultTeen
243 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1996
19 people want to read
About the author
Randy Powell
19 books7 followersI've lived in Seattle all my life -- since 1956. I live here now with my wife, Judy, and our two sons, Eli and Drew. I like the outdoors, books, fresh crab and raw oysters, and rain.
As a kid, I was crazy about sports. All sports. When I wasn't playing the real thing, I was playing some imaginary form of it. I wasn't a great athlete, just obsessed. I peaked when I was eleven. Our little league football team won the city championship, and the coach gave me the game ball. I lost that ball a few years later. I'm still looking for it.
I had fun reading and writing. When I found a book I liked, I threw myself into it, into the main character's skin. I'd try to write in the author's style. Writing was hard work, but what a rush it gave me, coming up with the right phrase, finishing a piece and feeling it click, reading it to the class and getting some laughs.
In high school, in the early 1970s, my hero was Arthur Ashe, the tennis pro. I concentrated on tennis and worked hard at it, but not hard enough. Today it's still my game of choice, and I still don't work hard enough.
High school is also where I became serious about writing. I became even more so in college, at the University of Washington. I made two trips to Europe, worked summers in Alaska as a deckhand on a fishing boat, and wrote short stories, novels, and even formula romances.
After college, I got a job teaching at an alternative school for junior high and high school dropouts. I taught for four years and loved it, but finally left because it ate up my writing time.
My breakthrough in writing came when I learned to look inside myself and write about the things I cared and felt deeply about. I guess it was only natural that my first published novel, "My Underrated Year", should be about a high school football and tennis player. Yes, there's a lot of myself in that book, although hardly any of the incidents actually happened. That's true of my other books as well.
I enjoy visiting schools and talking to students about writing. I also love hearing from readers. You can write to me in care of my publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux. I promise I'll write back!
As a kid, I was crazy about sports. All sports. When I wasn't playing the real thing, I was playing some imaginary form of it. I wasn't a great athlete, just obsessed. I peaked when I was eleven. Our little league football team won the city championship, and the coach gave me the game ball. I lost that ball a few years later. I'm still looking for it.
I had fun reading and writing. When I found a book I liked, I threw myself into it, into the main character's skin. I'd try to write in the author's style. Writing was hard work, but what a rush it gave me, coming up with the right phrase, finishing a piece and feeling it click, reading it to the class and getting some laughs.
In high school, in the early 1970s, my hero was Arthur Ashe, the tennis pro. I concentrated on tennis and worked hard at it, but not hard enough. Today it's still my game of choice, and I still don't work hard enough.
High school is also where I became serious about writing. I became even more so in college, at the University of Washington. I made two trips to Europe, worked summers in Alaska as a deckhand on a fishing boat, and wrote short stories, novels, and even formula romances.
After college, I got a job teaching at an alternative school for junior high and high school dropouts. I taught for four years and loved it, but finally left because it ate up my writing time.
My breakthrough in writing came when I learned to look inside myself and write about the things I cared and felt deeply about. I guess it was only natural that my first published novel, "My Underrated Year", should be about a high school football and tennis player. Yes, there's a lot of myself in that book, although hardly any of the incidents actually happened. That's true of my other books as well.
I enjoy visiting schools and talking to students about writing. I also love hearing from readers. You can write to me in care of my publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux. I promise I'll write back!
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
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October 10, 2013Stan and Ginny used to hang out together all the time. Best friends. Best friends forever even. But lately, since Stan gave up Tennis and Ginny has gone on to be the new up-and-coming tennis star, they haven't stayed in touch. Much.
Stan's gotten a few postcards from her, and that's how his night starts, digging out the postcards from Ginny to take over to her folks house. They've invited him for dinner - they still like him and all - and asked him to bring along the postcards.
They're worried - about Ginny. Ginny - the rising star - who hasn't won a match lately. Who seems depressed. Who won't talk to anyone about anything.
They're hoping Stan's postcards have some hidden information, something that will tell them why suddenly they're 'she-can-do-no-wrong' daughter has fallen over the net and has a back-hand that can't stick.
Stan's pretty uncomfortable during all of this, he knows Ginny will talk when she's ready, but he's worried about her too. That's why he says yes when her folks and Ginny's coach ask him to spend his summer with her - she'll be coming back in a week. It means he'll have to quit coaching at the Community Center, but he's okay with that. The little rugrats can find another coach.
Ginny arrives, but it's not like Stan thought. First, she's not talking to him, or to anyone. Oh, sure, they talk, but not about what's really bothering her - he can tell. He can also tell she looks different, older, more mature, and was she always that pretty? Did her breasts always look so wonderful and make him feel uncomfortable...thinking things like that about someone who used to tickle him? Hmmm...tickling.
He shies away from those thoughts and wonders if he should tell her about his secrets - the strange empty space, the whistling toilets....but decides not to - unless, of course, she tells him her secrets.
Stan's gotten a few postcards from her, and that's how his night starts, digging out the postcards from Ginny to take over to her folks house. They've invited him for dinner - they still like him and all - and asked him to bring along the postcards.
They're worried - about Ginny. Ginny - the rising star - who hasn't won a match lately. Who seems depressed. Who won't talk to anyone about anything.
They're hoping Stan's postcards have some hidden information, something that will tell them why suddenly they're 'she-can-do-no-wrong' daughter has fallen over the net and has a back-hand that can't stick.
Stan's pretty uncomfortable during all of this, he knows Ginny will talk when she's ready, but he's worried about her too. That's why he says yes when her folks and Ginny's coach ask him to spend his summer with her - she'll be coming back in a week. It means he'll have to quit coaching at the Community Center, but he's okay with that. The little rugrats can find another coach.
Ginny arrives, but it's not like Stan thought. First, she's not talking to him, or to anyone. Oh, sure, they talk, but not about what's really bothering her - he can tell. He can also tell she looks different, older, more mature, and was she always that pretty? Did her breasts always look so wonderful and make him feel uncomfortable...thinking things like that about someone who used to tickle him? Hmmm...tickling.
He shies away from those thoughts and wonders if he should tell her about his secrets - the strange empty space, the whistling toilets....but decides not to - unless, of course, she tells him her secrets.
January 1, 2013
When underachiever Stan Claxton is recruited to coach his best friend, Ginny, a nationally ranked junior tennis player, through a local tournament, he is also supposed to find out why she has recently fallen into a slump. As he tries to lend his support, he begins to discover new feelings for her and considers sharing his secret of the whistling toilets.
It's a good enough story as far as it goes and I like the dialog for the most part. The Stan and his buddies when they are together talk like guys, and his conversations with Ginny are meandering, often talking around the point the way most conversations do.
The secret of the whistling toilets was left almost to the end, and the whole time I was reading I was wondering if the revelation would turn out to be a disappointment after the long build up. It wasn't any great thing. I think I might have been disappointed had I read this years ago when I first grabbed it, because I woukd have been expecting someting miraculous. Now, I think the discovery worked for what it was.
What really kind of killed it was the final scene in the book, which just sort of socks you in the chest and leaves you hanging. Honestly, one more paragraph, maybe even just an additional sentence would have made the ending stronger and brought things to a more satisfying conclusion. Either that or take out the last scene altogether, because though I like it, it ends things on a sour note. I mean, really, it just goes to show how important an ending is, because this book would have been so much better with just small changes.
It's a good enough story as far as it goes and I like the dialog for the most part. The Stan and his buddies when they are together talk like guys, and his conversations with Ginny are meandering, often talking around the point the way most conversations do.
The secret of the whistling toilets was left almost to the end, and the whole time I was reading I was wondering if the revelation would turn out to be a disappointment after the long build up. It wasn't any great thing. I think I might have been disappointed had I read this years ago when I first grabbed it, because I woukd have been expecting someting miraculous. Now, I think the discovery worked for what it was.
What really kind of killed it was the final scene in the book, which just sort of socks you in the chest and leaves you hanging. Honestly, one more paragraph, maybe even just an additional sentence would have made the ending stronger and brought things to a more satisfying conclusion. Either that or take out the last scene altogether, because though I like it, it ends things on a sour note. I mean, really, it just goes to show how important an ending is, because this book would have been so much better with just small changes.
October 12, 2007
I found this book quite funny, but it does get serious. Older Readers: Gr. 7-10. When narrator Stan Claxton's best friend, Ginny, a rising tennis star at 15, is sent home to Seattle for the summer, her parents hire her friend and former partner to coach her through a tournament--and to jog her out of a two-month, career-threatening slump. Something clearly bothers Ginny, and Stan wonders if it's more than teenage angst and the stress of professional tennis. But how can he help her when he's so uncertain himself? Librarians may question the title, but readers will be intrigued. A nice booktalking choice for both boys and girls. it turns out the Ginny's tennis (an adult male) coach made pass at her (a 15 yr old girl).
July 8, 2021
I took a writing class in Writing for Children and Teenagers. I got familiar with some children's writing there. My step-niece too, works for Harper Collins in the children's lit department. I read this book after I discovered the local library's large new space devoted to teens. It was just a place to sit at first as I was unemployed and homeless but I found this book and I enjoyed it very much. I like the open aired spirit of the tennis and the young male and female characters. What are the whistling toilets you wonder. You don't find out until the end.
March 13, 2010
So far I'm really liking this book. It's so hard to find good guy teen books because of all the girly covers out there. However I researched this book before I got it and a guy is the main character not the girl. It's really funny and if you find you like or are currently curious about tennis in anyway this is a must read!
July 15, 2012
Stan & Ginny both teen tennis players re-examing their relationship/friendship when the ace put together as coach/player for tennis tournament in their hometown. Ginny's being groomed to play professionally Stan make good coach. They both have a commonality on growing up together, but need to decide where thir lives are going.
August 18, 2007
summer teen romance reading, with the male tennis player having a crush on his female friend/tennis partner. descriptions of how her serving arm, having hung out of passenger side windows, was tanner than the other, etc. enjoyable for those sorts of moments, etc.
May 8, 2009
A favorite YA read. I have a huge crush on Stan Claxton, the narrator of this book. Judy Blume feel without all the sex, and a dash of Gordon Korman. Fast and entertaining coming of age story, with some fantastic characters.
July 5, 2015
It promises humor, but really falls short. The ending is random. Is this book meant to be sad? And there is way too much junk about tennis.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews