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The Contender | LitPick Book Reviews
The Contender
The Contender
The Contender
Robert Lipsyte
The breakthrough modern sports novel The Contender shows readers the true meaning of being a hero.This acclaimed novel by celebrated sportswriter Robert Lipsyte, the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in YA fiction, is the story of a young boxer in Harlem who overcomes hardships and finds hope in the ring on his path to becoming a contender.Alfred Brooks is scared. He’s a high-school dropout, and his grocery store job is leading nowhere. His best friend is sinking further and further into drug addiction. Some street kids are after him for something he didn’t even do.So Alfred begins going to Donatelli’s Gym, a boxing club in Harlem that has trained champions. There he learns it’s the effort, not the win, that makes the boxer—that before you can be a champion, you have to be a contender.ALA Best of the Best Books for Young Adults * ALA Notable Children’s Book * New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age

Book Details

Genre: 

  • Fiction

Age Level: 

  • 12 and up
Profile Picture
SHC
Alfred Brooks' life looks like it's falling apart, he's a high school dropout and has a grocery store job that is amouting to nothing.  His best friend is sinking deeper and deeper into drug addiction.  So Alfred decides to start to go to Donatelli's Gym, a boxing club in Harlem that has trained champions.  He starts to turn his life around. He learns there that it's the effort that makes the man, not the win.
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