Gym Candy by Carl Deuker
A great read for football fans. The author has some great play by plays that make the reader feel like you are right on the sidelines. Mick Johnson is a running back and football is his life. He will do anything to stay on varsity, including taking steroids. Deuker does an excellent job of character development and Mick's character is very raw and real. The reader experiences the journey that an athlete takes by beginning steriods and getting hooked. Boys will really respond to this book and I hope it is on the top 20. The ending is very climatic. Huge YAY.
posted by Anne Keller @ 8:35 AM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
Yay! Great discriptions of football, both games and training.
Wow! This is a powerfully written, beautifully executed novel. Mick's drive, longings, fears, and endurance are spot on. Big YAY!
I dislike football. Watching U of M kick some other team's butt is kind of fun, but it all seems better with the sound off, and I really look forward to watching the band. I was not keen on reading Gym Candy.
I thought the descriptions of the action were well written and for some people they might make your heart race, but they weren't very compelling to me. I felt like I was watching the story from Mick's mother's perspective, scared for her son and angry with her husband (she should have been more angry IMO, but she's written as a passive person). Mick's father is perhaps the most depressing character of all, living vicariously through his son. In most novels, a parent's wish to live through a child is a comic plot, or an irritation, but in this case it had dire and tragic results.
I wonder if the target audience of young athletes will discover this book and want to read it. It didn't really move on my shelf, but then I don't get a lot of athletes during the school year.
I think the book is important because its truthful. I'll say MAYBE, because I won't be sorry if I don't have to read it again.
I am not a sports fan. The descriptions of the passes, tackles, calls palled and bored me about half way through. Well written, I made it to the end (where I've stopped in other books something I'm not in the habit of doing), but not wow material for me. The teacher who made Mick write the essay over again about why he loves football could have done a bit more to convey that throughout the book for the reader.
The climax didn't feel like a great fit.
Good recommendation for sports fans and boys in general and worth having in public or school collections. More in the league of a sports book than Dairy Queen or Off Season. Worthy, but not Thumbs Up for me. NAY
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