Small Steps by Louis Sachar

I find the plot of this book both very complex and very interesting. X-Ray has two tickets for a Kaira Deleon concert that hasnt been sold yet. He "gives the tickets" to Armpit so he can take Ginny, Armpit's friend, to the concert. At the concert, Armpit realizes that his tickets are counterfeit because he happened to have the same seats as some other people. Armpit, being an intimidating African American, get thrown to the ground by the police. The police think that Armpit counterfeited the tickets, and then drugged Ginny. The mayor looks into the situation and knows the truth- that Armpit got the counterfeit tickets from somewhere else and also that Ginny just seems like she was drugged because she has cerebral palsy. Kaira Deleon's manager tells her of what happening and because she feels empathetic, she takes Ginny and Armpit backstage to really nice seats, right behind the electric equipment. Ginny and Armpot both love the concert and love Kaira's amazing music. After, Kaira talks Ginny and Armpit inside Kaira's dressing room. Armpit and Ginny seem to become two of Kaira's very few amount of friends. After Armpit takes Ginny home, he realizes that X Ray was the one who counterfeited the tickets. Armpit ends up having breakfast with Kaira and later in the day, as soon as the two are about to kiss each other, Kaira's security guard interrupts the moment. The relationship between Armpit and Kaira is becoming more and more passionate. Because Kaira ia African American, she wants a partner who is African American, and I think Armpit seems to be the one. I am surprised that a boy like Armpit could end up with a celebrity like Kaira Deleon. There are themes present in this book such as race and love and I think both with intertwine to form a beautiful relationship between Kaira and Armpit.

Small Steps by Louis Sachar

People often have to face many obstacles in their lifetime. Armpit, the main character in the book Small Steps, especially does because of all of his relationships with his family, his friends and even himself. Armpit and X Ray, Armpit's friend, continue to try to sell Kaira DeLeon tickets because they assumed they would earn way more money than they had pent on the tickets. Because X Ray is very decieving to Armpit, he doesn't tell Armpit the whole story about the ticket sales. Four days before the concert, not one ticket has been sold. Eventually X Ray sells four tickets making about five hundred dollars. I thought that Armpit and X Ray would end up with nothing because nobody would buy them, but apparently I was wrong. While Armpit is stuck in this crisis about the tickets, he is assigned a project in school, in which he has to write an election speech for a stuffed animal to be president of the world. Armpit, being his manly self, does not own a single stuffed animal, so he goes and asks Ginny if he could borrow one. All of Ginny's stuffed animals have some type of disability, which I find interesting, on acount that Ginny has cerebral palsy. I assume that she created a disability for each animal so she could relate to them and talk to them. Ginny finally gives Armpit the perfect stuffed bunny-human creature whose name was Coo. Coo was a stuffed animal that Ginny had her entire life and it was very important to her. Armpit knew it would mean a lot if he had won the election in his speech class for the assignment. Ginny mentions how Coo is very strong and brave, so Armpit decides to write the speech about him. Armpit and Ginny have a strong relationship with each other that cannot be broken, no matter what happens.

Small Steps by Louis Sachar

I have just started the book Small Steps by Louis Sachar. The main character, Armpit, is an African American ex-convict who has been released from Camp Green Lake a few months ago. Camp Green Lake is a facility where young boys, who have broken the law, are forced to dig holes in the dry heat on baron land. Armpit has now found a job for Raincreek Irrigation and Landscaping where he still digs holes, except he gets paid for it. X-Ray, a friend to whom Armpit has met at Camp Green Lake, comes to visit Armpit while he is working. X-Ray convinces Armpit to give in 600 dollars to buy tickets for a Kaira DeLeon concert. Kaira is quite a famous young African American singer who is currently going on tour through Austin, Texas, where Armpit happens to live. X-Ray's plan is to but the tickets and sell them at an expensive price. In the meantime, Armpit shares a house with another family; a young girl named Ginny and her mother live in the other half of the house. Ginny has cerebral palsy so her disabilities greatly affect how she acts and speaks. Armpit and Ginny "hit it off from the beginning. She didn't fear him and he didn't pity her" (21). Armpit is forced to live a complex life balancing out his time between his job, his friends, and his family all at once.
I find it interesting that Ginny's disabilties and Armpit's looks balance out to create a great friendship. I also wonder if X Ray's plan will work. I predict that it will not because Armpit didn't really think X Ray was a person who you can trust. I have seen the movie HOLES so I do know some background information about the characters which help me visualize what the characters look like. Armpit is an interesting person whose decisions affect everything aspect of his life.

After Goran had sunk the three-pointer, a harvard-bound kid whose name is Clayton Clamp, got very ticked off at Goran's cheap shots so he decided to kick the back of Goran's heal really hard. As Goran fell to the floor, he landed on his legand knee, causing the bone to be out of his skin. The rest of the Tuckahoe Trojans got very angry at Clayton so they piled and pummeled on the kid. Goran, though, was in excruciating pain. For reasons that Thom Creed does not understand, Thom kneels beside Goran and starts moving his hands up and down Goran's hurt leg. Thom's hands feels an extreme hot and he starts to become dizzy. The referee's whistle bring Thom back to his senses. As the people drove Goran away in an ambulance, the nurses could not find the wound. Thom returned to the game. During the game, a "punk-ass Gary Coleman look-alike" decided to clip Thom as he headed for the basket. This action did not concern Thom, but the words after greatly affected him. After the ball went through the hoop, he said the word, "Faggot." This word caused Thom to want to win more than ever before.
This short part of the book is the start of so many things. For example, the healing-of-Goran's-leg episode is just a mystery of Thom's superhero side. I wonder what other superpowers he has and how his superhero side will develop because of what happened to his father. Also, the Gary-Coleman-look-alike episode gave a sign of Thom's homosexuality. Because his father is very anti-gay, I wonder how his father would react to this. I am at a point in the book where it is just starting to develop a plot. I cant wait to see what will happen next.

Hero by Perry Moore

Thom Creed, the main character in this book, enjoys the tutoring program. One day various community leaders wanted to check out the facility to decide what budget cuts needed to be made. Thom had decided to make a good impression by reading a book to the children about being friendly to the enviroment called The Lorax. After the reading, the children were dead silent besides one girl who never usually spoke yelled curse words, saying how she'll kill the people who killed those trees. Because this made a bad impression on Thom, Thom's boss decided he should read to the older students.While Thom is picking out a book to read to the bigger kids, another kid walked in the room. Both the other kid and Thom exchanged small talk with one another. Thom noticed the boy's extremely thick foreign accent so he immediately thought that this kid was a new foreign exchange student. Thom told the boy the benefits of learning a new language. Thom's boss walked in the room and says, "So I see you've met Goran....[He] founded the literacy program for the kids two years ago" (16). At this point, Thom felt like a total loser beacuse of his false aaccusations. Thom and Goran had a formal salutation by shaking each other's hand. And then (BAM) Thom remembered that Goran was the guy who pops Thom right in the eye during the basketball game. (Back to the present) Goran sinks a three pointer for the Tuckahoe Trojans.
This makes me think of when I see people that I reckognize but I cannot remember where I have seen them from. The story makes me want to get more and more engaged into the book. Although the Goran story explains a lot, there are still many unanswered questions in this book. I can't wait to see what will happen next!