Megan Moruzzi

Megan Moruzzi

Sticks

Joan Bauer

Realistic fiction

Holiday

Just Finished p.182

1. I have just finished Sticks by Joan Bauer. This book is about a 12 year old boy that lives above a family owned pool hall. His name is Mickey. Mickey wants to beat Buck Penders is the Nine-ball Championship. He has a lot of pressure on him because his dad was a world class pool player and I feel that in a way he wants to prove to everyone that he is as his dad once was. Micky's dad pasted away when Mickey was about 6 months old so Mickeys doesn't have any real memory of him. He does have some old videos and metals that his dad left behind though and Mickey uses those to prepare for the big tournament. When Mickeys dad was very sick he told his very good friend Joe Alvarez to look after his family if he died and he said he would. After Mickeys dad did die Joe broke the promise. He never wrote never called and never just stopped by to see if they were all doing alright. Mickey's mom was heartbroken. And when he suddenly showed u at the pool hall 11 years later she was not about to just let him in and forget about the past. It was going to take a long time for her to gain his trust back. With only a couple months left until the big Tournament Mickey needed to find a couch and fast. Mickeys dad taught Joe to play pool so Mickey wanted Joe to help him perfect his skills. The only thing is one day in the pool hall Buck was being such a bully to Mickey that Mickey lunged over and tackled him and he sprained his hand. This was a couple of weeks before the tournament so Mickey was worried that he wasn't going to be able to play and that he wasn't going to
have enough time to practice before the game. In the end of the book Mickey fought through the pain and won the Nine-Ball Championship  by never giving up and handling different situations like a mature "young adult" and it really showed how much he changed from the beginning of the book to the end.

2. I thought that this book was very well written. I liked the way that each character had very different personalities. I also really liked that each character had one main thing that they were good at, Mickey was good at pool, Mickey's best friend Arlen was excellent in math and Mickeys other friend specialized in magic. They also all had each individual goals that they wanted to reach that involved there special ability, Francine (the one that's good at magic) got to perform at Mickey's party that he had when he won the championship. I also really liked the way that the story was set up, the fact that Joe had to earn his way back into the family was really interesting because he did so many things to try to make Mickeys mom like him again like fixing her car, but it was more of a gradual thing. I also think that the strong relationship that Joe and Mickey had contributed to Mickey's mom gaining respect back for Joe. Overall I thought this was great book and well demonstrated practice makes perfect.

3. I fell that the overall theme in this book is fear of failure. I think that it shows up a lot throughout the story. Mickey fears that he is going to loose in the pool tournament. He works really hard to prepare himself but he doesn't think that he has done enough and fears a defeat. He gets even more concerned when he gets into the fight and sprains his hand. He worries that his hand won't be healed to play the big game. This makes Mickey very gloomy. A couple weeks later he goes back tot the doctors and finds out that he is going to be able to play, but he might not have enough time to practice as much as he needs to win. Another reason that he fears the he will have a unsuccessful outcome is that Joe had to leave for a road trip right up until a week before the tournament. the good thing about this is that when he got back he had got Mickey a special pool stick. Also Joe sends him letters from every location so that Mickey is kept up to date with his travels. Sending the postcards makes Mickey's mom gain a little more trust back because he kept his promise and send Mickey a card for every stop.

4.My favorite character is Mickey. He is my favorite character because he is so determined and shows so much passion for what he does. He is also a really good friend. His best friend Arlen really wants a tree house and his mom and dad said that if he remembers his books for the whole week they will work on the tree house with him for a hour on Saturday. Mickey came up with a plane to make Arlen  remember to get all of his books, because Arlen's tree house is made out of wood. So Mickey told him whenever he sees wood to remember about his books and book bag, it works! He is also very loyal to his sister. He does her laundry and listens to all of her problems and he gives her input to help her. He is overall a really good person and works really hard to reach his goals.

5. My least favorite character is Buck Penders. I really don't like him because he is such a bully. At the beginning of the book Buck beat up Mickey and Aron. This made me loose all respect form him. Buck is 14 and has no right picking on a 11 year old. At the end of the book when Buck is vanquished he doesn't act like a gentlemen and deal with his defeat and congratulate Mickey (like i know Mickey would for him) he just yells at his mom and dad telling him that it is time to go. He doesn't say anything or even stay for his runner up award. I also don't like that he thinks that he is better than all the other kids cause I know that that also hurts Mickey's feelings. I don't think that he deserves a metal for anything.

6. I think that the ending of the book was very predictable. There were some things that happened that I didn't expect but in the beginning of the book I feel like he was going to win. While he was playing in the tournament he was saying how badly his hand hurt and that he was holding back tears but I knew that he was going to fight threw it just like he did with every other battle that he encountered in the book. I did like the part when Francine gets to perform her magic act at Mickey's party. Also since Arlen is so good at math Mickey and him go to the mall and guess how many jelly beans are in a tub and using math Arlen is only 2 off and wins the tub of jelly beans. I liked the ending but I just wish that it put me on the edge of my seat with anticipation.Overall I think that the ending was pretty good because its a happy ending for everyone (except Buck Penders)!