In the book, Slam!, by Walter Dean Myers the main character Gregory Harris, also known as Slam, undergoes hardships. Three hardships that Slam has to overcome are keeping his grades up, dealing with his grandmother’s failing health, and coping with his best friend dealing drugs.
Slam is a very talented basketball player, but he has trouble with his grades in Latimer High School. Before going to Latimer because of the city of Harlem trying to increase racial diversity, Slam has gone to Carver High School. Carver isn't as academically oriented but more focused on sports like basketball while Latimer is very academically oriented with not as good of a basketball program. Slam is having trouble passing math, but his old coach at Carver
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“Whenever I think of hospitals all I can think of is sick and dying, and I don't want that to happen to grandma,” explained Slam(32). Grandma Ellie is a great motivation and is always there for Slam. She has kidney failure though, and she doesn't have much time to live. This gives inspiration and motivation to Slam to do his best in academically and on the basketball court while she is still alive.
The final and most important hardship for Slam to overcome is his best friend, Ice, starts to deal drugs. Slam tries to warn him by saying, “Don’t do this Ice you will get sucked into trouble, and it won’t end well”(149). Slam knows that Ice is good enough to play basketball in college and maybe go on to be a pro, but Ice enjoys the extra cash though and doesn't want to stop dealing. This causes Slam and Ice’s friendship to end because Slam knows the results of getting involved with dealing drugs. His dad had been drug dealer and addict before the drugs killed him.
In the book Slam!, a boy named Gregory Harris undergoes hardships. The book was interesting, and I thought it gave good life lessons. I would recommend the book to high schoolers who like life-like stories that could apply your own
In Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson it brings forth the lesson of perseverance. Mattie had to keep going and persevering even though her world was crashing down around her. When Mother first got sick Mattie had to look after her and attempt to care for her.
I read the picture book If you give a pig a party by Laura Nemeroff. This book is about a little girl who wants celebrate her pig's birthday, she is planing a lot of activities , such as the decoration, the games, and the the food. She realized that planning a birthday is a hard work because she has to keep happy to all pig's friends (different animals). This book has a lot of pictures to keep the children's attention when an adult is reading. I read it to my students and my daughter and they want to read it again and again.
Cedric is an unusual student to walk the halls of Ballou High. Unlike most of his peers, he actually wants to make something of himself; he does his homework, he studies and he works on extra credit projects. The majority of the kids at Ballou barely come to class, much less make any attempt at learning. Since this is the overall attitude of the school, Cedric must exercise social mobility and do whatever he can to better himself as an individual. He is not necessarily competing against the students at Ballou (because he by far surpasses them), but he is in competition with all the other students from better schools throughout the area. During the summer that Cedric spends at MIT, he is truly awakened to the fact that he was extremely far behind the other students from urban areas. The director of the program expresses his frustration with the MIT program- "When he first arrived... He had grand plans to find poor black and Hispanic kids from urban America-... He saw that he had been drea...
The novel, Whirligig, by Paul Fleischman shares the story of Brent Bishop, a teen who moves around often and has a hard time doing so, leading him to become extremely insecure about himself. The reader experiences Brent going through a troubled move as he loses control of himself at a party where he was bullied and became drunk. He ended up suffering the consequences of his actions by becoming suicidal on the road and ultimately killing another teen, Lea. Brent then leaves on a journey in search for becoming a better person and in restitution for Lea’s family. Brent's actions both before and after his journey result in many different consequences,both positive and negative, and they all changed him in one way or another.
Not too many people thought of him as being anything more than that, due to the fact that Jamal makes mediocre grades in his school in the Bronx, he does just enough to get by and to maintain a “C” average. Jamal did not push himself any harder in the classroom than he needed to. Jamal’s passion is writing, He meets a famous old writer named William Forrester through a dare, who has been watching him when he plays basketball at the parking lots. Little do they know when they first meet what a great difference they would each eventually make for each other. William is the first to help Jamal by helping him in his writing. Jamal is a great writer but just doesn’t know it yet. William helps Jamal find himself in his writing, and Jamal prospers into quite a good writer. The help didn’t really stop there either. Jamal would tell William all about his day and
Having a big ego and too much self confidence can ruin a person’s ability to see the consequences of their actions, and make good choices in life. The book Slam is a book about a boy who switches schools and has to learn how to fit into his new school. He has a hard time keeping his grades up and getting along with the teachers, students, and coaches. In the story, Slam!, by Walter Dean Myers, Slam doesn’t foresee the consequences of his actions because of his ego, his immatureness, and his self confidence.
In the book A Hope in the Unseen is about a young African American young boy named Cedric Jennings, who experience many things throughout his life that not only he learns about what he didn’t know he can know, but changed him completely on his journey of high school and college years. Growing up in Washington, D.C.’s most dangerous neighborhoods, where drop rates were higher than kids that actually attended school. Cedric is a well intelligent and motivated student who keeps mostly to himself. He has one goal only and that is to attend Ivy League University and keep himself away from the drugs and violence that surrounds him on a daily basis. With the help from his mother Barbara Jennings, a few teachers and experience at a rigorous pre-college program at MIT Cedric is accepted to Brown University. Cedric is someone who people can relate to in real life situation and this story is one of the ways of sharing this story of his that people can learn things they never knew they can learn from.
Although Danny is only four-eight, he overcomes great odds by leading a team who rejected him for being small. Since Mike Lupica made the protagonist a short elementary height, it creates a dramatic effect when his father asks him to coach, and then beats his old travel team. Danny Walker was used as a symbol to represent a great basketball mind behind a small middle schooler. The dedication and work ethic Danny has for basketball before and after he coaches the Warriors prove John Wooden’s quote, as he succeeds in being an on-court coach and star
The two ultimate choices to send him to a private and a military school, plus Moore’s own choice to not pursue a career in the NBA but to stay in school were three powerful choices that shaped him to become the man he is today. On the other hand, Moore’s destiny is one that is striking differently from the other Wes Moore’s destiny. As previously stated, these two boys who share a similar identity and started in the same circumstances ended up in two discrete places, due to the decisions they made, and what their fates had in store for
I really enjoyed Dragonkeeper written by Carole Wilkinson. I recommend this book who loves fantasy and adventure novels. I learned the importance of friends through this book so I consider this book have a beneficent influence on young
On october 15 1999 there was poor guy named Tyrone he was 18 years old and live with his mom and his three brothers named Lebron and Andrew. Lebron was 15 years old and Andrew was 12 years old. Tyrone was 5’7 tall his skin color was brown and has green eyes his hair was faded he was born and raised in compton. Every morning at 6:00am Tyrone would have to wake up and his brothers and get ready for school because the bus came at 7:00am. Lebron would be the lazy one who wanted to sleep more. Tyron is a senior at compton school district he alway turn his homework and projects in the last minute he's going to graduate in 2 day from now he's passing every class with a B.
Marcus’s family is poor. His mother is a single parent. She is working long hours as a seamstress to provide for Marcus and her daughter, Sabrina, after her husband left the family. They live in a public housing estate referred to as the projects. Eddie has two parents that are both in jobs. They have a better economy than Marcus’s family, but Eddie doesn’t get as much money as he’d like to. They live in a private house in the same area of Queens as Marcus lives in. It is the beginning of the final term in high school, and parties and trips are coming up. The boys have saved up money to cover the expenses for a long time. But then, Nike comes out with a brand new pair of shoes in the basketball team’s colors, maroon and powder blue. Everyone on the team is getting a pair, and everyone will notice if the stars of the team haven’t got them as well. The boys consider themselves as too good for jobs, so th...
In the book Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathebane there are many obstacles that Mark the protagonist has to overcome. The first of his problems was to get through school in his poor South African ghetto. The second was to achieve his goal and receive a tennis scholarship to an American college.
After reading Hallway Hangers, a sense of the complex relationship between poverty and education is gained: it a dualistic one. In some views, education is a means out of poverty, yet those who grow up poor often have different opportunities, hopes, and experiences in their school years. During my time thus far at Colgate, I have participated and watched many sporting events on campus, and found that local families attend and cheer with as much enthusiasm as the students. Similarly, on National Athletes appreciation Day last year the Student Athletic Advisory Committee (SAAC) ran a program at both the elementary and high schools in Hamilton, providing question and answer periods for the students and giving them skills clinics. The tremendous respect that I felt that the students gave me was overwhelming, not because I was just an athlete, but because I attended Colgate University. While observing the sporting events and the community outreach programs I realized then that Colgate is a virtual mecca for this area. So a double standard is evident: the presence of a relatively prestigious college is no doubt an inspiration to local students; but the reality of the matter is - how many of these youths could, and would, achieve a college diploma?
There was no escape from what seemed like hell. After years of violence and abuse, Steven’s mother had had it. After Danielle had just been molested by her father, she thought that their was nothing left to live for. She had pulled the trigger on herself, killing one of the few people that Steven had cared about. After this incident, Steven rebelled against everything that he believed in. He just felt like there was nothing to live for and no one he could depend on.