Cal Cameron, high school jock and superstar hero comic book fanatic, is an insider at Scenic View High School. He's popular and he does the "right things." But Cal's life isn't as perfect as it looks. His cranky old grandad practically lives in Cal's back pocket, and Cal resents his brilliant sci-fi nut brother whose friends go to restaurants dressed as their favorite science-fiction characters. It is his emotionally distant father, with whom Cal has nothing in common, who saddens him the most.
But at the beginning of his junior year, Cal's popular facade disappears. His heart isn't in anything--not even football. It's a time of crisis for Cal Cameron.
Enter Marti Jeffs, who has legs "like Charles Atlas" and isn't ashamed of them. Brand-new to Scenic View High, Marti doesn't seem to care what anyone thinks about her. Cal, who has made a career of being "in," is fascinated by Marti. They become friends, but Cal is careful to pursue their relationshihp away from high school because Marti is so unlike Cal's friends, and around her Cal acts like a different person. Cal feels as though he's leading a double life--Cal Cameron by day, Spider-Man by night.
Winner of the Delacorte Prize
Novel Award, Association for Mormon Letters, 1988