Spurt: A Balls and All Story

A hilarious coming of age story for teenage boys about faking it until you make it—and what it means to be a man

Jack Sprigley isn’t just a late-bloomer. He’s a no-bloomer. He’s about to start the last term of ninth grade and puberty is still a total no-show. Worse yet, he hasn’t heard from his friends at all over break. He assumes they’ve finally dumped him and his child-like body—except then he finds out that it’s much worse than he thought. His friends are now so far ahead of him that they’ve started hooking up and getting girlfriends. Jack comes up with a plan to catch up and win his friends back. And his plan is perfect: he just has to fake puberty.