Student Saturday : Skinny-Bones -Barbara Parks

Drew is one of my students who seemed to really love this book.  The following is his review.

Alex Frankovitch is in the 6th grade and has a major league big mouth.  He is put in a class with T.J. Stoner for two years in a row.  T.J. acts like a jerk, and a big shot, he plays baseball, and is the best pitcher in the league.  Alex gets bullied by T.J. a lot, and gets fed up. He uses his big fat mouth to challenge T.J. to a pitching contest.  Alex lied that his coach said he had one of the best curve balls in the game. The problem is , Alex doesn't pitch, and he has only tried it once. The first time he pitched all the balls that he threw never even made it to home plate.  On top of that t.J. is about to set a little league record for the most games won consecutively, if he winds one more game. The team that he has to beat happens to be Alex's. Alex's team is sponsored by Fran and Ethel's cleaning service and his team hasn't won a game all year. Everyone at school is positive that T.J. is going to crush Alex and his win-less team. T.J.'s team won the State Championship last year and has continued its winning ways this year too.  Whose side are you on for the big game? Will Alex make a fool of himself in the pitching contest? Will T.J. beat Alex and make the record books? Read this book to uncover the truth. In my opinion this was a very good book that was filled with a lot of humor, with some unsuspecting twists and turns throw in there. This book humored me and kept me entertained from the beginning to the end. My connections with this story is that I am a little league pitcher, and I have played baseball for a long time. I recommend this story to anybody who enjoys a little humor, a challenge, and is into sports.