The Contender Reading Review

The Contender

Harper Trophy

Published 1993

In the book The Contender by Robert Lipsyte, Alfred Brooks is a high school student that is a dropout. He is scared for his future and he works at a grocery store that is leading him nowhere. He does boxing and he goes to a place where all of the champions learned how to box.

" You wanna fight somebody you fight me,"said the enormous belly,pushing Alfred out of his way. "I say aint no man,neither."(pg.71)

Throughout the book it has shown the stuggles that he went through with his family and also what he had to go through when he stopped going to school. Since he stopped going to school it had showed the different situations that he had gone through and what he had to overcome. He didnt know what to do with his future. So thats when he thought about going into boxing. This quote shows what he had thought about before he started to box. What he had to say to people so that he could get himself pumped up and looked forward to what he had to do during the fight.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I enjoy reading sports books because I think that since I play sports that it would be more enjoyable for me. If I didnt play sports or had no idea what some of the other sports did then I wouldnt want to read them and I wouldnt be interested in reading them. After reading this book, it has really opened my eyes to show that even no matter what sports you play or if your in school or not, that there is many difficult situations in your life that you would come across and that you would have to work through. Also that when you play sports it could take your mind away from the hard situations in your life that you are going through and that sooner or later you will be able to over come them along the road.

Is Long John Silver a Violent and Friendly?

When you see a pirate or hear about one, you would automatically think that they are rude and wouldn’t care about anything else but them. Majority of people probably do think that pirates are rude and don’t care about anyone else. After reading the book and watching parts of the movie, the pirates act violent towards each other but then they also act friendly. Some of the pirates never got along so then in that case they were always violent towards each other and they weren’t as friendly as other pirates were. Jim and Silver have always stuck together ever since Silver held him hostage. He told him to go onto the other ship to see what they were saying and what their plan was so that when they would have bombed them, they would know what to do. So he hid into a barrel until they were done and then he went back onto his ship and told the captain what they had said and what their plans were.

After reading the book and also seeing parts of the movie, I thought that Long John Silver is both violent and friendly. In Treasure Island, Stevenson makes the main character; Long John Silver likeable and kind character. Long John was a hard worker and he was always likable towards everyone. At the beginning of the book, Long John was rude and he always wanted people to follow him and he wouldn’t be nice to anyone because he wanted everyone to do whatever he wanted to be done. Since he is one of the major pirates on the ship, he wanted everyone to go along with what he thought and not have them disagree with him. Silver had a lot of more power than the captain of the ship even though he was the cook. He knew what to do when they were bombing them and he knew how to survive and how to come back in other situations.

Since Long John wanted everyone to follow what he wanted, even though he was the cook, he didn’t want them to disagree with what he wanted to be done. He would always tell them even though he was the cook, he would treat them like they were handsome and a common mutineer and pirate. If they didn’t want to do that then he said for them to go hang themselves. "You're either my ship's cook-and then you were treated handsome-or Cap'n Silver, a common mutineer and pirate, and then you can go hang!" (p. 190). This is showing what he wanted to be done. And if they didn’t follow what he wanted then he told them to go hang themselves. Even though he was the cook on the ship, he still wanted them to treat him like he was the captain and to follow the rules that he wanted to be done. If you didn’t follow what he wanted to be done then he would send you to be hanged. He didn’t care what u were towards him, if you didn’t follow him then you would have to leave and go get hanged.

After Long John and Jim met up with Billy Bones, all they thought about was the ‘black spot’."And now, shipmates, this black spot? 'Tain't much good now, is it? Dick's crossed his luck and spoiled his Bible, and that's about all" (p. 289). This quote is showing that even though all of their shipmates that they had, they are showing them where the black spot is and that’s where they have to go to find the other pirates. Even though after Smallett showed them the black spot, he had said that it wasn’t as bad as they had thought it was going to be because of how much they didn’t know how to get there and what to do to fight them. Also how that Dicks crossed Smalletts luck and spoiled his bible and that’s it meaning that after showing him where the black spot was, that it wasn’t as bad after showing him everything about it and that he knew what to do with the other pirates and what to do when they found the other ones so that they could fight them and show that even though there are two different types of captains and also that Long John tries to act like a captain, he gets the pirates follow what he wants to be done and not just have the captain do all of the work. He can be a cook but he can also act like he is the captain of the ship and get everything done the way that he wants it to be done.

Captain Long John and Jim have always been close. At the beginning all of the pirates though of Silver as a mean pirate. At the middle and the end of the book, he wasn’t like another pirate. He was always kind, friendly and he was also a Villon at the same time. He would always have these talks with Jim, but once he had had a talk with him and this is what he had said to him; "Now, you see, Jim, so be as you ARE here," says he, "I'll give you a piece of my mind. I've always liked you, I have, for a lad of spirit, and the picter of my own self when I was young and handsome. I always wanted you to jine and take your share, and die a gentleman, and now, my cock, you've got to. Cap'n Smollett's a fine seaman, as I'll own up to any day, but stiff on discipline. 'Dooty is dooty,' says he, and right he is. Just you keep clear of the cap'n. The doctor himself is gone dead again you — 'ungrateful scamp' was what he said; and the short and the long of the whole story is about here: you can't go back to your own lot, for they won't have you; and without you start a third ship's company all by yourself, which might be lonely, you'll have to jine with Cap'n Silver "(p.180). This is saying that Silver has always liked him and that he has the spirit like no other and when he sees Jim, he can picture himself as a young boy. He has always wanted a young and handsome gentleman for himself. He wants Jim to always be there because they barely have anyone left, since the doctor is gone and Smollett isn’t the same as Jim is.

Crunch Time Reading Review

Crunch Time

"A Richard Jackson Book."

Published 2006

In the book Crunch Time there is a group of four students that are trying to study for the SATs. They are juniors in high school. They all get together once a week at one of each others houses to have this study group. The first practice test that they took, the two boys got high scores but then the two girls got low scores. So one of the boys is gonna help the two girls study better so that they will get around the score that he got because he got a 2100 on the first practice test they he took.

"One of the lamest books i ever read. the only interesting thing were the information about the SAT because i keep thinking about taking it. but the last of the negative aspects is loooong, i dont want to go in detail, but the main ones: * it jumps all the time between the characters. i hate books with verious kind of views. * some problems are unsolved * i did not get into the book. i wasnt excited at all to continue reading overall - it was a waste of time! "

The writing style in the book was different from any other book that I am used to reading. The style was set up differently. On every page when the student was to talk or when they were thinking something, at the top of it it would have their name. I didn't really like the way that the book was written only because I wasnt used to it. It could be different for other people because they would think that it was easier for them to read and understand what is happening throughout the story.

LEO

Daisy's score is so lousy, at first you're like, "You're kidding." But as we go through the questions we screwed up you can tell: She wasn't kidding. (45)

I didn't really enjoy reading about a group of kids studying for the SATs and what they had to go though. Nothing had came across in the book that had interested me only because I thought maybe studying for the SATs in a group session than rather studying for them on your own only because you could have more help getting more ways on studying for them. I never took the SATs so I personally would never study for them, but I also thought that by reading this book it would have helped me find out other ways for studying for other big tests that come along in my life, but it really didn't help me as much as I thought that it was going to before I started reading it.

Siddhartha's Adventure to America

On a warm breezy night around 5 o’clock at Virginia Beach, VA. Siddhartha met me on the boardwalk because he got a private jet to bring him to meet me in front of the pier. After meeting with Siddhartha I knew that he used to fast while he was in India, so I had asked him if “he was willing to go and eat at a seafood place because I figured he would be starving”. He said “yes I will be revealed if we went to eat because I am starving”. It was after we went to dinner at a seafood place. Siddhartha didn’t really like the seafood because he has never eaten it as much as I do. After we went to dinner we got out around 6:30, I asked him if he wanted to go for a walk on the beach later. He wasn’t to sure about it, but then after awhile he thought about it and he thought that it was going to be calming and relaxing. While we were walking on the beach we could hear the waves crashing, seagulls and people talking on the boardwalk. After a little while he wanted to talk to me about how his life is at India. He was telling me about how he wants to feel at home and that he wants to meditate. So I talked to him and asked him where he wanted to go to meditate. So he picked underneath the pier, at the edge of the wet sand. So that he will be able to hear the waves crashing and listen to everything around him so that he would be calm and would be able to meditate easier and he wouldn’t be distracted. As he was sitting there for twenty minutes, I was sitting a little further away from him so that I wouldn’t be distracting. I was playing with the sand and enjoying the cool breeze. After he was done meditating for awhile he came over next to me and started telling me about how much he liked how he was able to do that and he thanked me for letting him do that because it meant a lot to him. I thought to myself that Siddhartha would have thought that it was very soothing and that he thought that it was a very good choice that I wanted him to meditate there at the beach because I knew that he always did that in India, but he did it for a longer amount of time then just only 20 minutes. He would usually meditate for days but he didn’t want to keep me waiting for him. So he just did it quickly. But it still meant a lot to him. After he was done meditating, I asked him “if he wanted to go on the jet that he took and take it to Seattle, Washington to see how it is out there and to also see how different and how entertaining it is then rather being calm at the beach”. He had said “that he would really like that and also that he thought that it was going to be interesting changing to an entertaining place then rather staying in a quiet place”.

We landed in Seattle Washington at around noon on a Wednesday afternoon. I asked him if he would want to walk around the town to see all of the different attractions that they had to do. One thing that really stuck out to him was the space needle. There were some shops there and we sat down and ate lunch there. He had asked me why I wanted to take him here and not somewhere else. I told him that I wanted to take him to Seattle because my mom used to live here and I thought that it was a lot of fun and it was beautiful here. After we were done eating and we went back down the bottom of the space needle, we could hear people talking and a lot of people walking and all of the rides that they have. Some of the textures that we could feel when we were talking were the concrete, benches and a lot of people. It was so crowded that we had to walk right next to each other and we were practically touching families that were surrounding us, that was how crowded it was. Since it was a very warm afternoon while we were walking around the town we could smell the fresh air all around us. Since it was so crowded, we could taste the different peoples cologne/perfumes, vomit from the rides and sweat. I thought to myself that Siddhartha would think that he was very crazy and that their was a lot of different things that we would do. After taking him to Seattle he liked it there a lot since it was very entertaining and there was a lot to do to and there sites to see. He asked me what "I liked the best about spending the past two days with him." I said " what I liked the most about meeting him and spending time with him was that I got to see the different situations that he was put in while he was back in India, also how he overcame them." He thought that my answer was very interesting because he thought that I would think differently about him after seeing what he usually does back home.

After meeting with Siddhartha and spending time with him, I thought that the best lifestyle that best fit him would be when we went to Seattle. After being at the beach I figured that being there when it was quiet and he got to meditate for a little while. Then maybe he would have wanted to go somewhere where there was a lot of entertainment. I think that he liked the Space Needle because once your up there, your able to see the whole city and its a beautiful view. After being up there eating lunch and walking around through the shops, he really enjoyed spending the day there. After spending a couple days in America Siddhartha had really enjoyed himself and got to see a different side as to what he is usually used to when he is back at home.

The Travel Across the Country

The Bean Trees (Taylor Greer)
This Fall Apart (Okonkwo)
The Setting of the story is taking in place in Tucson,Arizona and Pheonix,Arizona.

One fall afternoon while Taylor was traveling across the country to get away from the early pregnancy and a more interesting life style, she stopped at Tucson, Arizona at a gas station to take a rest. As she stopped there for a quick stop this young man came up to her and started talking to her and he had introduced himself, his name was Okonkwo from a village from Umuofia which is from a native tribe.
“Hello, what is your name?”
“My name is Taylor Greer, I am originally from Oklahoma.”
“Where are you from?”
“I am from a small village of tribes from Umuofia, I’m trying to leave the village and start to go off on my own and not be so close to my family that is still in the village.”
“Oh, well I’m from a small town in Oklahoma.”
“Well I think I’m going to grab a couple of things here and start to head back to the village and tell them that id like to go somewhere else that isn’t so crowded and close together.”
“Okay, well I think I’m going to do the same thing and head to Phoenix, Arizona to go meet my aunt at a diner because that’s were I told her Id meet her for a meal.” Taylor then pays the cashier and starts going out to her car for the rest of her drive to Phoenix. While he says he’s heading back to the village he holds the door for her and watches her go to her car and he goes back to the bus stop where he got dropped off and waits for the bus to come back to get him. Taylor notices that he has to wait for the bus to come, but he just tells her to go on with her driving and to make sure that she gets to meet her aunt at a close time then when she wanted.
As Taylor is driving to Phoenix, she is thinking about many different situations. She is wondering if Okonkwo really likes her and if he wants to meet her again. In addition, about what he is leaving behind in Oklahoma, and if it’s a really good idea to be leaving and to go to another part of Arizona to live there. At the same time, Okonkwo is thinking about whether he should go back to his village with his family or if he is truly interested in Taylor and wants to go after Taylor and try to get to know her better and maybe start dating.

Taylor has met her aunt at the Diner at 6:00 p.m, she met her aunt and gave her a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. She was so happy to see her because she has not seen her in a while. When they were seated, they started to look over the menu. After they placed there order and they started talking to one another they started talking about Okonkwo and Taylor was telling her aunt Lou Ann how she felt towards him. Taylor did not know what to say to her, all she kept saying was that how they met at her last pit stop and that they started a conversation and she was interested in him. As they were going into a deep conversation, Okonkwo walked through the doors and looked around to see if Taylor was there like she said she would have been. Therefore, when he saw her he slowly walked towards her and she swooped down into the booth that she was sitting in. When he came over she was a little nervous at first but then he introduced him to her aunt.
“Aunt Lou Ann, this is Okonkwo.”
“Hi Okonkwo, it is so nice to meet you!”
“Yes, it is a pleasure to meet you too.”
“Would you like anything to drink or eat; I can bring the waitress over for you if you need anything?”
“Yeah sure ill have something, I can go up to the waitress myself if you’d like me to.”
“No its okay, she’s already on her way here anyways.”
As the waitress comes over to see if they need anything she asked if Okonkwo would like anything such as a drink or a bite to eat. Which then he places his order. After he does place, his order he notices that Taylor looks over at him and smiled. He smiled back at her with a wink. He looked over at Taylor’s aunt and smiled at her too. In the meantime, there waitress was bringing their meals and Okonkwo’s drink out. After they were all done eating they went outside to go back to their cars so that they could go back to the places that they were going to. As they went to the cars, Okonkwo gave Taylor a big hug and then gave her a kiss, which she was not expecting so she was happy about it.
“Would you like to come back to my aunt’s house and maybe spend the night there?”
“No it’s okay; ill go to a hotel, so that you can spend some quality time with your aunt because I know that you haven’t seen her in a while.”
“Alright, are you sure about that?”
“I feel bad for just leaving you like that.”
“Taylor, it’s totally fine, I offered if you wanted to spend time with her because I know you haven’t seen her.”
“Okay, well that’s good, I’m hoping that I’ll see you tomorrow sometime, just call me tomorrow and let me know what your plans are.”
“Yes, I most definitely will!”
“Okay, I can not wait to see you!”
Then right after they end there conversation, Okonkwo opened the door at her car for Taylor and he went off to the bus stop so he could get to the hotel he was staying at.