Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Take a Chance Challenge Tasks, 2, 4, & 7

I have completed three more tasks for the Take a Chance Challenge. I have posted my reviews below.

Take a Chance Challenge Task #2 My Random Word was “Life” I chose the book Airball My Life in Briefs by L.D. Harkrader.

Kirby Nikel loves basketball. However he can’t play basketball. Kirby joins the basketball team when he learns their seventh grade team will get to meet his idol and former school alumni, Brett McGrew. This meeting is very important because Kirby is sure that he has all the clues to prove that Brett McGrew is his father. The one thing that stands in his way is the school board. They have informed the coach that there will be no team or meeting Brett McGrew if the team can’t win the first game of the season. Between the coach and Kirby things just might work out.




Task #4 Judge a Book By Its Cover – Book Begging For Change by Sharon G. Flake

The cover shows a young girls hand holding a Styrofoam cup and change being dropped in. I suspect she is homeless or else so hungry she must beg for change to survive.

I was so wrong in what I thought this book was about. This is the story of a young girl whose father is a drug addict and her mother is trying to get ahead in life. Raspberry’s mother is dating her best friend’s father, a doctor. Raspberry’s mother is brutally attacked and ends up in the hospital. While Raspberry is trying to deal with the incident, the area they live in and the fact that her father should have been there to protect them, she makes some bad decisions and steals some money. This threatens to tear her friendships apart and eats at her unmercifully. Unpleasant encounters with her father where he steals from her sets her on the path to thinking she has become like her. Raspberry has to go through a lot of thoughtful soul searching to set things right in her life. Excellent book. This is one that teens will definitely be able to relate to.

Task # 7 Best Seller in a random year: The year was 1958 and my book choice was A Death in the Family by James Agee.
This is the story of a father’s untimely death and the family’s reaction to it. At the beginning of this story you immediately know that this is a very close family. When the father is suddenly killed in an automobile accident we are taken on the journey the family must take as they realize the immediate and future changes to their family, their feelings and life. Agee did a great job of bringing the reader along. I felt the pain and grief due to the descriptive and emotional way this was written. He touched on other topics especially the church and the role it played in society during that time period. I found myself angry along with Mary’s brother Andrew at the priest who refused to complete the service because her husband had not been baptized. This was definitely a good book.

4 comments:

  1. I'm participating in Jenners' challenge too. Good job getting all these tasks done. I like your reviews. I think I'll take a look at "A Death in the Family". It sounds very interesting and well written.

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  2. Sounds like you are making great progress on the challenge. The Agee book sounds pretty good ... I might have to check that one out. And I loved how your expectations for the cover one were so different from that reality ... but that one sounded good too. I don't think I would want to have a life like Rasberry!

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  3. Great job! Sounds like you are moving right along in the challenge.

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  4. Good job. You're making better progress than I. Judge a book by its cover was the difficult one for me.

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