James Blake – Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My Life by Andrew Friedman

Breaking back is a biography with Andrew Friedman about James Blake, who is a pro tennis player. James Blake grew up in Connecticut with a below middle class family. He grew up always playing tennis everyday. As he got older, more and more people noticed how much potential he had. As he became 14 or 15, he started to train at an academy. By the time he was 19, he dropped out of Harvard and became a pro tennis player. As the start of his pro tennis career, he was not very successful at all, as he progressed, he started to win more tournaments and become more successful. While he was hitting with another tennis player before a tournament, this player hit a drop shot, and James ran for it. He stumbled and hit a metal net post. He passed out, and when he awoke, he was in the emergency room. He had broke his neck. The doctors said that he was probably not going to walk again. He was off for several months, and was able to walk again. When he first started to walk, he wanted to get right back on tour. He trained for a while, then went to small tournaments. He was doing well in those, so he went into bigger tournaments. He struggled for a while, but once he got back to 100 percent, he started doing much better. He is now in the top 10 in the world. James Blake never gave up and kept persevering to get back to where he is today.

If you enjoy tennis you should read it.

Review by Ben S. – 8th grade

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Living on the East side of town isn’t very easy for the greasers. Having to grow up on the poor side of town, where their are gangs and rumbles always going on with their rivals the Socials, or Socs. After their parents die, Darry, age 20, is left in charge of his two younger brothers Sodapop, age 16 and Ponyboy, age 14. Life is not so easy for greasers like Ponyboy and his friends. The Socs are a vicious gang of rich kids who think it fun to beat up greasers. They always seem to have the upper hand which doesn’t make the Greasers very happy. At least everyone knows where they stand, but all that changes when one small happen-stance leads to a long, hard, chain of events, which will change all of their lives forever. Although the greasers endure many hardships they always stick together and persevere.

I think many people would like to read this book because it talks about real life problems. The needs to belong, that adults don’t understand teenagers, and more.

Review by Megan K. – 8th grade