Contender, The by Lipsyte, Robert Reviewed by Jessica, age 13 The Contender The Contender is a great book and I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves to read. In this book a boy named Alfred Brooks. His mother died of pneumonia and James is there for him the entire time. He tries to become a boxer. His friend James starts hanging out with the wrong crowd and he gets in a lot of trouble. “You won’t know if you’re a contender until you get hurt…… and I mean really hurt then you’ll know” said Mr.Donatelli. This is significant because Mr.Donatelli says this to Alfred when Alfred says he wants to be a contender. He wants to be a contender so he doesn’t end up like James, an addict. In other words he wants to make something of himself. Some of the other characters are James, Major, Hollis, Sonny, Henry, Aunt Pearl, Spoon, Jelly and Mr.Donatelli. James is Alfred’s friend that went bad after he got caught robbing Epstein’s. After he got out of jail he started hanging out with Major’s gang. Major is the leader of the gang, Sonny and Hollis are the main thugs. Major calls Alfred “Good Old Uncle Alfred” He picks on Alfred until Alfred finally stands up to him then he backs off. Aunt Pearl is a very religious woman not too excited about Alfred boxing, but only because she doesn’t want to see him get hurt. Spoon, Jelly and Henry are his trainers. Spoon is a teacher and an ex-boxer, Jelly is a very heavy man who is also an ex boxer, and Henry is a lame boy that works at the gym. This story takes place in New York in the 1960’s. It also takes place at Donatelli’s Gym, the club room, Epstein’s Grocery Store, the par and other places as well. Some good things the author did was when he kept making the flash backs connect with the task a hand. He kept reminding the reader what others say to Alfred, it is also a good way to make T: S connections because I always think back about what people say to me and I do the same thing Alfred dose in the book. The theme in this book was for Alfred to get to help his friend James because this is what happens at the end and for him to become a contender. I think anyone would like this book it was very enjoyable, but mostly boys because they can get into the whole boxing thing. I still enjoyed this book and think many other people would like it too. Other reviews of this book were also done by: Rusty, age 14 Ariel , age 14 Tess, age 14 Alisha, age 14 Peter , age 13 Jamiel, age 14 Peter , age 13 Halleigh, age 13 Jeanette, age 13 Alex, age 13 Jeanette, age 13 zack, age 14 Karla , age 14 Diana , age 14 Jeanette, age 13 Junior , age 15 Vanessa, age 15 Zack, age 14 amber, age 14 Perla, age 13 Caitlyn, age 13 Jesus, age 14 Joey, age 14 Jennifer, age 14 Joey, age 14 Jesus, age 14 chris, age 14 Priscilla, age 13 Cristal, age 14 Hector, age 13 Shy, age 13 Andy, age 13 Beatriz, age 14 Tyler, age 14 Cameron, age 14 rodrick, age 14 jacquez, age 14 Anaise, age 14 Ashley, age 13 Delvon, age 14 randy, age 15 Armando, age 13 Angel, age 14 zack, age 15 cristian, age 13 ivy, age 13 Ivan, age 14 TOMAS, age 13 Gaby, age 14 Laura, age 13 luis, age 14 Jonathan , age 13 Hannah, age 14 Lucero, age 14 Haley , age 13 tabitha , age 14 Briana, age 14 christopher, age 14 Bobbie, age 14 oscar , age 59 jose, age 14 Daniel , age 14 Gabriel, age 14 juan, age 14 Carolina, age 14 Chris, age 14 Heather, age 14 jake, age 14 Brea, age 13 Dustin, age 13 mary, age 14 Dustin, age 0 Jessica, age 0 Edwin, age 0 Christian, age 0 Samuel, age 0 Curtis, age 0 Elizabeth, age 0 Christian, age 14 Ashleigh, age 14 curtis, age 15 Elizabeth, age 14 Efrain, age 14 Carlos , age 14 Samuel, age 14 Kaley, age 13 Whitney, age 15 Kaley, age 14

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