Gym Candy

   Mick Johnson wanted to be the starting running back on his football team from the moment he started playing football at only four. Mick was raised thinking that his father was an amazing  football player who played for the NFL, but later realizes he did not get the full story. He vows never to make the same mistakes his father made.In junior high Mick starts to really gain speed and agility, but finds he is not as strong as he would like. He starts to lift weights and soon starts to take steroids. At that point in the book the side effects start to really effect his life. For example he wants to go swimming in a pond with these girls hes with but when he takes his shirt of he is starting to grow man boobs and getting a lot of acne on his back.

   This to me was a very good example of kids being put in a situation where they rely on steroids. He wanted to be the best and he thinks the only way for that to happen is for him to start taking steroids. This is not good that in order for people to succeess in a sport that they think they have to take steroids. This is a ridiculous thought and is not true at all.

Overall I think the fact that in sports today people think in order to succeed you need to take drugs to make yourself stronger is pretty ridiculous. And it shows what kind of society we are in today that people would look up to people that do that.

Raiders Night pt 2 *spolier Alert*

     So I just finished my book Raiders Night and the ending was very scary and unbelieveable. The player (chris) that in the beginning was getting bullied and pushed around finally couldn't take it anymore. He showed up to the locker room during an only players meeting and he came with a gun. He was going crazy and wanted to shoot Ramp and kill him because of the hell he put him through. This shows how bullying can affect someone so much to the point where the go insane. 
     Chris kept trying to get in touch with Matt, but Matt could not face him. He doesn't know what he should say or do, and he really doesn't want to do anything. He wishes the whole mess would just go away. It's pretty clear to see that the coaches and even his dad know that something happened on Raiders Night which is what made Chris so mad in the first place. It's also pretty clear that they don't want to know all of the details because they want the best for the football program.
     Matt knew at the end he could have prevented any of this from happening if he just stood up and took the role of a captain and helped matt but he didn't. But in that locker room Chris knew he could never shoot someone else, so he tried to shoot himself but Matt saved him. 
     At the end Matt told the police everything about what Ramp did and how it affected Chris and he took his role, and did the right thing.
  

Raiders Night response

I just started a new book called Raiders Night. So far in this book I’m only about 70-pages in and I have already found an example of a social issue. I don’t know if the author meant to do this but to me the issue so far I see something that can maybe be seen as something related to police brutality. In the book the police are not involved yet, but I think that the author is trying to show how people with power take advantage of their power by verbally and mentally bullying and hurting others.

One example I have found so far in this book that could be an example of police brutality is how when a new player joined the high school football team, the captain Ramp started off having a negative attitude towards him. So far Ramp seems like a very mean, pushy and demanding person and I think it’s like this because since he has so much power he thinks he can do anything. To me this really relates to my topic in ELA right now because it is very similar to police brutality.

Another example of police brutality was a much more physical type of bullying. It was a freshman event and any new players on the team and the seniors including ramp got to basically torture them. But not in a mean or physical way. Ramp took the whole event way to far. He made the new player Matt strip down to no clothes on. They got into a little scuffle and since Matt was blind folded he could not really do anything. At that point Ramp literally took a plastic baseball bat and pushed it into his body. He then could not really move and blood started trickling down his leg. This was another example of how Ramp, someone with authority took it way to far. Which to me could be an example of bullying or police brutality too.
Overall i think that so far in this book i have found multiple examples of how this could relate to bullying and or police brutality. It is someone taking advantage of their power because basically no one tries to stop them. I think if someone steps up to Ramp and tells him how bad of a person he is being to his own teammates it might open his eyes and stop being such a bully. And stop taking so much advantage of his power. I am really interested to read more and see what else i can compare to my main subject.

Slam: probelms in the text

Right now in my book slam written by Nick Hornbi there is a big issue throughout this entire book. The main character has a rough life because his parents are split up and his mom had him when she was only 16. This is a problem throughout the entire world because people have babies by mistake at a very young age. He also just met a really pretty girl named alicia things got serious really fast. After a little while they saw each other a lot and they started to have sex. One time they had sex without protection which is another problem because it shows that two people can have a baby at a very young age by accident.
     The text also shows the struggles that too teens can face when they have to go through rasing a baby at such a young age. They can really ruin the rest of they're lives and end up missing out on the chance to go to college like a regular kid but they end up basically throwing away they're future. In this book Alicia could not go to college at all which really probably ended up really effecing her future.. all in Wall there was a very strong message in this text and I liked the book a lot.

Crackback.

          The main character in my books name is miles and right now he has a lot of conflicts going on for one he just cost a game winning touchdown to end there winning streak and also his best friend is now taking steriods and he doesnt want to shoot with him because his dad has always told him not to. so right now he is stuck between doing the right thing and keeping his best friend. But in my opinion if your best friend will only be your friend if you take steroids with him then hes really not a good friend at all.
          There is also this girl he likes and wants to ask out to the dance but he doesn't really know how to talk to her and he is really nervous to ask her out to the dance because he doesn't ask girls out alot.
          Also in the story right now his dad is puting a lot of pressure to be a good football player cause he used to be one when he was in college and he wants his son to be more successful then him. In my opinion its really unfair how he puts so much pressure on his son and he doesn't really appreciate his son enough in my oppinion.
          
         

The Outside Shot By: Walter Dean Myers.

i just finished the book the outside shot and i thought it as a really good book. it was the sequal to my favorite book of all time, "Hoops". i didnt think it was quite as good as hoops but i thought it was very good.
 I think that from the beginning of the book to the end of the book the main character changed a lot because he was a black kid from Harlem who was put in a college in California with almost all white people. when he went to the college for the first time he didn't really respect white people a lot. but i think by the end of the book he was more respectful and a lot more mature was a major character change i saw in the book. i reccomend this book to everyone!