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New novel for young adults by Shelter Island author debuts: Robert Lipsyte takes on timely issues

The Reporter’s readers are on familiar terms with Robert Lipsyte, the columnist who’s dubbed himself The Codger, casting a witty and critical eye on the Island’s governing bodies and the world’s foibles.

Add to that audience the millions of sports fans and readers around the world who’ve enjoyed his coverage in The New York Times and elsewhere throughout his career, of the most important sports stories of the modern era, from Muhammad Ali to Billie Jean King and Lance Armstrong, with half a dozen non-fiction books to his credit as well.

And he’s amassed a universe of readers from yet another group, the young adults for whom he’s been writing fiction since 1967.

This month, with the publication of “Rhino’s Run,” Mr. Lipsyte has welcomed the current generation to his thoughtful and sympathetic depiction of the uncertainties of adolescence, both within the insular worlds of sports and schools and the wider world with all its dangers and unknown possibilities.

This is his 13th Young Adult book, aimed at 12- to 18-year olds — especially boys. More than half have been about sports, the world he’s been immersed in since his own adolescence, although more as an outside observer than a participant.

The cover of ‘Rhino’s Run,’ the story of a high-school football player contending with serious issues. (Courtesy photo)

The mocking and bullying aimed at kids who were more inclined to be “English major types — sitting around listening to their beards grow,” in his own phrasing — rather than jocks, gave him plenty of his own difficult teenage experiences to draw upon. Later, he plumbed the memories of his son and grandsons — “an endless supply of informants,” to write more novels that kept up with changing times.

Still, “I don’t think a lot has changed,” he pointed out. “Teenagers are still insecure about sexuality, their place in the world, whether anyone will ever love them, will they ever make anything of themselves? They’re afraid, intimidated by people who have more confidence.”

Mr. Lipsyte said he found the same mentality in the sports world when he was covering it, often a bullying atmosphere, even in sports journalism.

Hailed in Kirkus Review as “a jumbo package of provocative contemporary issues centered on an appealing protagonist,” “Rhino’s Run,” puts a high school football captain in a challenging situation, which becomes life-altering when another student brings a gun to school.

The author believes contending with the frightening topic of gun danger in the pages of a book, a safe environment, makes it manageable for a teenager to consider as a reader.

He said he enjoys writing fiction, especially when his characters come to life in his mind to the point where they dictate what is going to happen, rather than the author laying out the plot beforehand. “The ‘what if …’ is so thrilling to a writer,” he said. “It’s a wonderful mystery, seeing what the characters want to happen. Of course, it’s a little like Frankenstein’s monster.”

In comparison, journalism, he added, “let’s you down — you have to go with the facts.”

Respect for those facts and talent for delivering a powerful story have earned Mr. Lipsyte numerous awards for his journalism, including a runner-up place for a Pulitzer in commentary in 1992.

The new YA novel now makes its way into young readers’ hands, via Amazon, and onto library bookshelves, alongside a half-century’s canon in that genre, which earned Mr. Lipsyte the Margaret A. Edwards Award for Lifetime Achievement from the American Library Association in 2001.