Believe to Succeed
June 4, 2020
Believe to Succeed
Nick George
Gym Candy
Carl Deuker
“Mick are you on steroids”(230)? That is a question asked by the trainer after Mick has two record shattering performances. Mick made significant physical improvements during the off-season leading up to this question that could ruin a career.
Gym Candy is a realistic fiction book about a kid and his hopes to be a football star. The main character, Mick Johnson has been playing football his whole life and has dreams to one day play in the NFL. Mick is a hard working kid and puts football over everything else in life. Not only is he a hard worker, he has the skill and genes to make any team if he gives it his all. Mick’s father made it to the league with a promising career only to be ruined. He had a terrible injury; he would never be the same. At Least that's what he told Mick. This gives Mick-- a hardworking kid-- even more drive to make it to the league and accomplish great things that his father was not able to. After a season cut short possibly by Mick not having enough strength to push through a tackle. He knew he had to get stronger over the off-season, he knew he needed to put in so much work that his body ached everyday. Mick overcomes a lot of problems and obstacles throughout the start of his high school football career including getting the starting role on a high level football team. Mick had a busy off-season working everyday but he wasn’t working just by himself. He had a trainer and a helper of some sort that made him able to last longer and lift more weight. That is the same helper that gets him into a problem after a few games into the season. Peter, Mick’s trainer says, “You see what it does for you, how strong it makes you. Why stop?”(201). This leads to another huge decision Mick has to make that may either make or break his high school football career at one point or another.
Although I do not read much, this book was definitely one of the best books I have ever read. There was always something going on that made me curious to see what would happen next or how something was going to happen. Every chapter was interesting and seemed to bring some new action into the story. There was cliff hangers and it was very interesting to see how this kid was trying to achieve his goal of making it to the NFL. This book also illustrates that a good work ethic will lead to success. Hard work will always bring a better result that sitting back and being lazy. Mick worked very hard his whole life and kept getting better and better as he worked more and grew older. Throughout the book it showed the mindset of a hard worker and showed what it takes to be determined to get a certain role or position on a field or even anything in life. The author, Carl Deuker is great at showing characters feelings by the way that they act. One quote that shows that is when coach Brown doesn’t believe in Mick, “What makes you so sure I’m not better than Drager?’ Brown snorted”(123). Clearly Brown does not believe Mick is even close to the skill level his old teammate Drager had. Just by that little snort you can see exactly what Brown was thinking when Mick was saying this. He does not believe in Mick. Carl Deuker is also really good at getting his readers to want to keep reading. He never really ended a chapter without me having a question in my head about something that had happened. I felt engaged the whole book and never felt like I wanted to stop reading. He always finds a way to make the story more and more interesting as it goes on. Overall this book was a great read and something that I think a lot of people should read regardless of if you like sports or not.
I would recommend this book to anyone. You don’t need to be interested in sports to like this book because there is so many different things happening. Although, if you do like sports this book will be even better for you because there is a good amount of football being played throughout the book. The book has a lot of aspects of life that kids will go through from school, to relationships with friends and everything that goes on in a teenagers life. This book also shows that hard work pays off and that if you work hard you will most likely achieve great things. After all I would recommend this book to anyone that likes a good story line and I really enjoyed this book myself.
Carl Deuker
“Mick are you on steroids”(230)? That is a question asked by the trainer after Mick has two record shattering performances. Mick made significant physical improvements during the off-season leading up to this question that could ruin a career.
Gym Candy is a realistic fiction book about a kid and his hopes to be a football star. The main character, Mick Johnson has been playing football his whole life and has dreams to one day play in the NFL. Mick is a hard working kid and puts football over everything else in life. Not only is he a hard worker, he has the skill and genes to make any team if he gives it his all. Mick’s father made it to the league with a promising career only to be ruined. He had a terrible injury; he would never be the same. At Least that's what he told Mick. This gives Mick-- a hardworking kid-- even more drive to make it to the league and accomplish great things that his father was not able to. After a season cut short possibly by Mick not having enough strength to push through a tackle. He knew he had to get stronger over the off-season, he knew he needed to put in so much work that his body ached everyday. Mick overcomes a lot of problems and obstacles throughout the start of his high school football career including getting the starting role on a high level football team. Mick had a busy off-season working everyday but he wasn’t working just by himself. He had a trainer and a helper of some sort that made him able to last longer and lift more weight. That is the same helper that gets him into a problem after a few games into the season. Peter, Mick’s trainer says, “You see what it does for you, how strong it makes you. Why stop?”(201). This leads to another huge decision Mick has to make that may either make or break his high school football career at one point or another.
Although I do not read much, this book was definitely one of the best books I have ever read. There was always something going on that made me curious to see what would happen next or how something was going to happen. Every chapter was interesting and seemed to bring some new action into the story. There was cliff hangers and it was very interesting to see how this kid was trying to achieve his goal of making it to the NFL. This book also illustrates that a good work ethic will lead to success. Hard work will always bring a better result that sitting back and being lazy. Mick worked very hard his whole life and kept getting better and better as he worked more and grew older. Throughout the book it showed the mindset of a hard worker and showed what it takes to be determined to get a certain role or position on a field or even anything in life. The author, Carl Deuker is great at showing characters feelings by the way that they act. One quote that shows that is when coach Brown doesn’t believe in Mick, “What makes you so sure I’m not better than Drager?’ Brown snorted”(123). Clearly Brown does not believe Mick is even close to the skill level his old teammate Drager had. Just by that little snort you can see exactly what Brown was thinking when Mick was saying this. He does not believe in Mick. Carl Deuker is also really good at getting his readers to want to keep reading. He never really ended a chapter without me having a question in my head about something that had happened. I felt engaged the whole book and never felt like I wanted to stop reading. He always finds a way to make the story more and more interesting as it goes on. Overall this book was a great read and something that I think a lot of people should read regardless of if you like sports or not.
I would recommend this book to anyone. You don’t need to be interested in sports to like this book because there is so many different things happening. Although, if you do like sports this book will be even better for you because there is a good amount of football being played throughout the book. The book has a lot of aspects of life that kids will go through from school, to relationships with friends and everything that goes on in a teenagers life. This book also shows that hard work pays off and that if you work hard you will most likely achieve great things. After all I would recommend this book to anyone that likes a good story line and I really enjoyed this book myself.
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