Choice Book Report

I read the book The Batboy, and the main character was Brian Dudley. He is a fourteen year old boy who loves the game of baseball. He is on a summer baseball travel team and is a batboy for the Detroit Tigers. His dad used to play in the major leagues as a pitcher, but then retired and moved to Japan to get a job as a pitching coach. Brian meets his all time hero, but at first he doesn’t act like the big hero.
Brian got the job as being batboy for the pros at a very young age. You originally have to be about 16 to be a batboy, but his letter he wrote was inspiring to the commissioner of baseball that he put Brian as batboy. The commissioner of baseball, Mr. Schenkel, said, “We need more kids like this in baseball, not less, whatever age is.” This is showing how much Brian cares for baseball and needs it every day. Brian’s summer consists of baseball everyday because of travel baseball and being the batboy.
When Brian’s dad, Cole Dudley, retired from baseball he divorced Brain’s mom, Liz Dudley. He did this because he could not settle down and forget about the major leagues. When he left Brian and Liz, he got a job in Japan as a pitching coach. Brian misses him a lot. He misses being able to practice with him or just hang out. One day, Cole comes back to visit, but doesn’t do what Brian was expecting out of him.
The day Brian hears Hank Bishop was going to play for the Detroit Tigers he just can not believe it. Hank Bishop is his hero. He knows ever fact about Hank, and he even has a box full of Hank Bishop things. Hank got suspended from major league baseball for a couple of years because of steroids. Even though most people didn’t like Hank after that, he was still Brain’s hero. When the first met, it was not what Brian was expecting it to be. Hank told Brian to never talk because he was that kind of guy. As a batboy, you are suppose to take care of the players bats, but Hank never let Brian or any of the other batboys to touch any of his bats. Brian’s hero was still Hank and always rooted for him.

The book I read was The Batboy. The point of view for this book was in third person. I think this was an excellent choice for the author. This was a good choice because it gives off more detail on what is going on than just on one person. This book had a lot of predicting which got people guessing.
Third person was a great choice because it shows what other people are feeling and not just one. For example, when it was Cole and Liz Dudley’s anniversary, it should how Liz really felt about the divorce. Since Liz and Cole are split up, third person shows us how Liz really feels about the break up. She says that baseball was always a competition with her. For most of her marriage, it felt like baseball was the other woman that took Cole away from her. When Cole finally left her, she was relieved because she had to no longer compete with baseball.
Another good example of third person, is when Hank Bishop hit his first two-out, three-run, walk-off homer for the first time back in major league baseball. The reason why this is good third person is because the is three main people in the seen. When it goes to one of the three, it makes it easier to read by saying the name one time then being able to say he the rest of the times. After Hank Bishop it the walk-off homer, Brian raced to home plate like all the other Tiger players to give a congratulations to his favorite player Hank Bishop. Then, is says that Willie Vazquez runs to home plate because he was running from third. When he is done touching the plate, he runs back down third baseline and acts like a cheerleader for Hank Bishop. The last thing that happens in this scene is Hank Bishop comes running into home plate, throws his helmet, and gets ready for the beating. The beating of peer excitement. I think this is a good example of third person because it showed three different peoples’ actions in a very short amount of writing. If this would have been in first person, it would have been harder to read because it would have been harder to read and comprehend what the author is trying to get across. On Brian’s summer baseball team, he plays left field. He is a pretty descent hitter, but in the middle of the season he goes into a bad slump. On average, he struck out three times in a game. His dream is to get a homerun by the end of the season. He is definitely not the best player on the field, but he has love for the game. He studies the game very hard and doesn’t stop thinking or watching baseball.

Choice Two Book Report

        I read the book Travel Team for my choice two book report. The main character in this book is Danny Walker. This twelve-year-old is a small basketball boy from Middletown, home of the Vikings travel team. Danny was sure he was going to make it this year like he did the other two years. He was a star and everyone knew it except one important person. The coach of the Vikings, Jeff Ross. Danny’s dad, Richie Walker, and Jeff go way back. When the were twelve on the Vikings travel team, they won the Little League Basketball World Series, but Richie made it into the NBA and Jeff didn’t. Richie was small, but a very well played basketball player. Danny followed the same footsteps as his father, small and great.
       After Danny found out that he didn’t make the team, even though he was sure he was going to, he almost decided not to play basketball for the season. Danny let himself down because one person decided he wasn’t good enough. This means, Danny cares what other people think.
      Richie Walker created a different Middletown travel after Danny didn’t make the Vikings travel team. They called it the Warriors, and they took kids that someone said once weren’t “good enough” to make the other team. Danny’s attitude toward the team was they never were going to become a team that no ones wanted to play. He thought they became the team that everyone wanted to play. This means that Danny never had a positive attitude toward the team until the end of the book. The boys and Colby, a girl that they took off the girls travel team because she is what people call the girl of your dreams in basketball, started talking and acting like a real team.
       One night, Jeff Ross came by the house to speak to Danny before they were going to go into the playoffs. He came to ask Danny if he wanted to play point guard, the position he plays, for the Vikings and leave the Warriors. Danny had turned him down because he knew he could never let his team down. Danny is a kid that is loyal.
       After the Warrior’s first win, the team was going to celebrate at a pizza place. On the way home, Richie got in a bad car accident and couldn’t finish out the season coaching. All the parents from the team either were to busy to coach or didn’t know one thing about basketball to coach the team. The team needed to find a coach fast, and Richie Walker knew the perfect person to coach the team, Danny. Danny became the coach for the Warriors and was the perfect coach too. He was a smart player on the court.


        I read the novel Travel Team. Danny faces many different obstacles. He didn’t make the travel team, and he needs to coach his travel team to win the championships. I will go more into detail with these two things.
       Danny is a boy who loves and breathes basketball. He has been trying out for the Vikings travel team since he was in fifth grade. Now that he is in seventh grade, he was sure that he was going to make the team even though he is one of the smallest kids out on the court. His father was Richie Walker, a NBA star, and Danny got his talent from his dad. When Danny didn’t make the Vikings travel team, he didn’t know what to do. He was thinking that he should just take a little break off of basketball for awhile. This would be an example of external conflict, Danny-against-Jeff Ross. Jeff Ross is the coach that told Danny he wasn’t “good enough” to make the team. Richie Walker had solved Danny’s problem of quitting by making his own travel team.
      I think I wouldn’t have done the same as Danny was going to do. I don’t think I would quit basketball for the season because if I loved basketball as much as he did, I wouldn’t just quit because of one person. I would try to find a different team to go and play for especially if you knew you could be make the team. Danny even knew that he didn’t make the team because he was small and the coach didn’t like his dad, so it means he could have made the team if it was a different coach coaching the team.
      He did not handle this conflict they way his personality is. His personality is to do anything that would help him play basketball. It wouldn’t help him if he didn’t play basketball for a season because he loves basketball more than anything else.
      Richie Walker was originally the coach for Danny’s travel team. Until one night as he was driving home from the teams first win, Richie got into a car accident. This was his second car accident, so he was beat up pretty badly and had to be hospitalized for the rest of the basketball season. Danny and the team now had to find a coach or they wouldn’t be able to finish up the season. All the parents either were to busy to coach or didn’t know anything about basketball. Richie had decided that the best coach would be his son, Danny. Even though Danny knew a lot about basketball it was still going to be hard to figure out what the teams strategy should be. This would be internal conflict, Danny-against-himself.
       Danny fixes the problem of figuring out the plays and the positions of the teammates by just being relaxed about everything and using his basketball brains. If I did have basketball brains, I would do the same thing as he did. It is the best way to fix everything instead of giving up.
      Danny did handle this the way his personality is. He is a kid that wouldn’t give basketball up for anything, or he isn’t a kid that would blow off his team and forget about everything.

Choice Book Report

 

                In the book, Stumptown Kid, the main character is Charlie Nebraska. Charlie is an 11 soon to be 12 year old boy who loves the good, old American game of baseball. He lost his father at war, and misses him too much to except the fact that his father passed away. When the Army sent his father back, his mom never opened the casket, so he believed his father wasn't dead. Every day he would think his dad was going to walk through the front door and everything in Charlie's life would go back to normal.

          Charlie is the kind of kid that would do anything just to help his friend. In the story, he risked his life to help his friend, Luther Peale. Luther is an African-American who taught Charlie how to pitch a baseball better and make the ball go in the strike zone. Luther knew about baseball very well because he was a professional baseball player. He was a pitcher on the Memphis Mockingbirds, a Negro League, and one day he was playing a white team called the Nashville Lions. Sam Brody, a player from the Lions, came up to bat drunk. His head was hanging right in the strike zone, so when Luther threw the pitch he hit him right in the head and killed him. Well, Sam's brother, Ruckus Brody, said he was going to kill Luther the next chance he got even though it wasn't his fault. That's why Luther ran away from Tennessee, where he grew up. Ruckus found out where he went to and came straight to Stumptown, Iowa to find Luther and kill him. So when Ruckus found Luther, he had a switchblade and was about to hit Luther when he was lying on the ground, after he fell. But Charlie found an egg crate; he hit Ruckus over the head without even thinking. He fell straight to the floor. That's how Charlie helped Luther when it was needed. It just shows that Charlie doesn't think before he acts sometimes, but it came in handy on a desperate need. Charlie was friends with him till he had to leave town. He was there for Luther when he was homeless and needed food. He bugged his mom, one night, into bringing Luther spaghetti for supper. Charlie didn't care if he was an African-American even though most of his town was against African-Americans. It just shows that Charlie only cares about what's in the inside of a person.

          In baseball, all Charlie wanted to be was the best. He wanted to practice as hard as he could to get better. When Luther gave him pointers, he concentrated on them hard. He was a dedicated player to the sport.

          Charlie was very respectful to his mom. When she needed help with anything she asked for, he would be right there helping her. He thought he had to be the “man” of the house after his dad passed away. His mom got a boyfriend, who he hated with a passion, and Charlie could tell that he wasn’t the “right” person his mom needed. His mom’s boyfriend was always a jerk to Luther. Charlie has the confidents to say to his mom’s boyfriend that he didn’t like him.

              
  Stumptown Kid was a book I really liked. The reason why I liked it was because it was about baseball and I’m a big baseball fan. It wasn't a book about facts of a professional baseball team. It was mostly about people playing games of baseball. An example is Charlie didn't get put on the Wildcats baseball team, so Luther taught him how to throw a baseball better like a fastball. Well one day, when Charlie and his friends were playing some baseball, Luther gave Charlie and his friends some pointers on how to hit the ball better and how to throw the ball better. So if you are looking for a book that knows some things about baseball, this is the book for you. 

              The book was also always going meaning there wasn’t a part where it got slow or boring. Like when Ruckus Brody, a guy who was about to kill Luther, came to Stumptown there was a lot of action and suspense. Ruckus Brody is a man from Tennessee that had his mind set to kill Luther. Ruckus came all the way up to Stumptown, Iowa and found him. Well, that day when he found Luther, he had a switchblade and could’ve killed him, but Charlie was there in time to knock him over by hitting Ruckus over the head with an egg crate. When the cops came, they locked Ruckus in jail thinking he wouldn’t be out for a very long time. They were wrong.

 I would recommend this book. It was a book where you couldn’t put it down. For example, at the end I stayed up late just to finish the book. The reason for this was Ruckus Brody got out of jail. Vern, Charlie’s mom’s boyfriend, broke in and got him out of jail because he didn’t like Luther at all. So since Ruckus was out of jail, he went on a search for Luther and found him coaching baseball for Charlie’s team. He created Charlie as bait to get Luther to come over by him. That’s all I can mention write now. Read the book to find out the rest.

It’s an excellent book to read. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes action and baseball. These two combinations make a stupendous book to read. Someone reading my blog should read this book.  This book is a fast reading book because you won’t put it down unless you absolutely have to. Anybody that is big in baseball or likes reading an action and suspense book should read it.

Memoir 2

          It was the first day of fourth grade. I knew it was going to be a marvelous year because I had a good teacher. As I stepped into the front entrance feeling nerves going out and in, seeing the little kindergartners shuffle around with smiles on their faces thinking "I love school!" even though they would soon find out it's not as much fun as it seems. I had a satisfying five hours until my mom and great aunt walked in as my teacher was explaining how school was going to be this year. They pulled me out of school for the rest of the day. We raced out of school and as we were walking I asked my mom, "Why am I leaving?" Smiling yet tears rolling down her cheeks she said, "Your uncle just passed away." Feeling like someone just stabbed a knife in my stomach and then ripped my heart out, I began to feel the sharp tears roll down my cheek, also.

          He was only 30, and he was married. We knew he wasn't in the best position because on Friday of Labor Day weekend , my uncle fell off a four wheeler. As he was loading up for the day, he was showing his brother in-law a reverse button, that if you pressed, you would go in reverse fast. Well, when he pressed the control button, he went backwards and lost control of the four wheeler and fell onto the tar. He had died the next Tuesday.

Memoir 1

          Try outs for travel softball. The day I feared the most. It didn't help that I only knew a few people that were trying out. It was a Saturday, and I had butterflies in my stomach that you couldn't even imagine. When I got there, I found a friend to start playing catch. Every throw, every catch was nerve racking. I didn't want to make a fool out of myself in front of the coaches. As I watched some of the other girls do the same things I did, I wasn't positive if they were going to get the better position. When the try outs were all over, I couldn't wait for the results.

         Hours, days, weeks, and months passed and I still didn't get the results. Why weren't they coming? It shouldn't take that long to figure out who was going to be on the team. Every phone call that came to the house I would jump out of my chair yelling, "Don't worry, I got it!" When I answered the phone, I would hear a, "Hello?" and every time I knew it wasn't the coach I was disappointed. One day, my friend texted me to ask if I had got the email about the team. I called my dad as fast as I could to ask if he got it. He didn't get it. I was disappointed to hear I didn't get the email. I was just hoping the coach didn't send it to me yet. As the day went by, my dad never told me if he got the email. Finally, my dad told me that he got the call. The coach was wondering if I wanted to be on the 16 and under team.

        To be on the 16 and under team I couldn't even imagine. That's all I could think of when I heard it. There was only one bad thing. I had to decide if I wanted to stay with my friends on the 14 and under team or go to the 16 and under team. I didn't know what I should do. The only reason I tried out was to be with my friends, but I did want to give myself a challenge. I had to make a decision. Friends or challenge? I decided after a long, hard decision. I had decided to give myself a challenge and go on the 16 and under team. I am happy I made that decision because I had the best summer. We took first in one of our states and third in another. It was truly an amazing year.

INTRODUCTION

Hi I'm Nicole!
         I love sports! I'm currently in cross country, but I do also do alpine skiing and softball. I used to be in football, swimming, and soccer, but some things didn't work out so well. Alpine skiing and softball are my favorite sports. I am doing softball throughout the year, so I will be busy!
         I have a dog named jazz, and he's a yellow lab. I have been to a lot of states in the United States, but have never left the country. This summer my family and I went to Minot, North Dakota and Monticello, Arkansas for my brothers travel baseball. His team made it to the world series. :)
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HEY EVERYBODY!!!

ELLO!!