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The Contender
The Contender
Author: Robert Lipsyte
There were three flights of dark, rickety stairs up to Donatelli's Gym, a Harlem boxing club where champions had trained.Most of the boys, black and white, came up those stairs in the daytime and with friends. But Alfred Brooks, a seventeen-year-old high school drop-out, climbed them at night, alone and running scared.Down on the hot streets the...  more »
ISBN-13: 9781435232891
ISBN-10: 1435232895
Publication Date: 4/11/2008
Pages: 224
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Rating:
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Book Type: Library Binding
Other Versions: Paperback, Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
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skooby avatar reviewed The Contender on + 10 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
It's not the type of book I usually read but I found I really enjoyed it. I would have liked the finish to be more complete.
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reviewed The Contender on + 13 more book reviews
A gut-wrenching story of life in the black ghetto written in the late 1960's. It was read during high school and has a sticker on the front that says MATURE. Content contains graphic violence and racism and the language to go along with it.

Alfred Brooks was part of the murky dropout world of junkies and petty theives. He lived in Harlem, where staying away from Whitey was the first rule of any street gang. Any member who broke this code could expect the worst the gang could give. Alfred Brooks wanted to make it straight-but he had a conflict. He wanted to stay alive as well.