Thoughts on YA Literature: Summer Ball (Mike Lupica)

Mike Lupica’s Summer Ball is a story about a young basketball player named Danny Walker. He is thirteen years old and has arrived at a summer camp run by Josh Cameron. Personally, I am not into sports, so when that name was mentioned in chapter two, I had to look up just who this person was—even after the novel mentions that he was a star point guard of the Boston Celtics. I did not know what a point guard was and I generally do not follow sports at any level.

The portion of the novel that I could relate to was the fact that Danny and his friend’s height differences with other basketball lovers at Right Way camp. I know the feeling of having such a height disadvantage. The author was able to make this to be one of many central themes throughout the book, even though it does not have to be. The novel could have easily been written without the conflict of height; Lupica transcribed his characters to have a love for basketball—so much that Will comments to Danny that, “Basketball always makes you happy. It’s who you are, dude. Your whole life, every single time you need to show somebody new that you have game, you show them. Big-time.” (15) This made me think of things that I am passionate about; realizing then that Dixon was able to relate his character’s love for basketball to his targeted audience’s love and passions for things they enjoy as much as Danny enjoys his sport.

I felt whole at the end of the book because the author was able to show character growth intellectually and physically. The characters of the story start out unable to address their fears and conflicts well. Towards the end of the novel, the characters were able to find ways to address their problems, figure logically ways to proceed with what they have to do, then eventually make a connection. A question I have is why did Lupica pick Josh Cameron (a soccer player)? I wonder if the author has some personal connection with this figure; or was it something random that he decided to generate to fill that particular role? The novel is about basketball, with slight references to soccer; so why Josh Cameron? Was it intentional?

Thoughts on YA Literature: Hunting the Dragon (Peter Dixon)

Peter Dixon’s Hunting the Dragon is an inspiring story of a boy who misdirects his life and comes to find out a bit about himself that he never knew existed, after a series of events—especially after being fired from his job as a surfing guide. The story then transfers into a combined series of events where Billy (the protagonist) finds a new job on a ship called the Lucky Dragon. Not knowing what his job title would consist of, Billy finds himself in a predicament after finding out just how messed up his job consists of.

I was surprised (and I am sure Billy was to) that the story would take this sort of turn. It never occurred to me that Dixon’s novel would turn towards the concept of saving endangered species, such as dolphins. The ideas were laid out as you read the commentaries. At first, I thought that the story would be a rendition of Flipper. I read the commentaries left by Peter Dixon about how he came to writing this story, which guided me in this pre-conception. I did not know that such stories were ever to be implemented into a fictional novel. I realized then that you should not be that quick in making judgments about a novel’s plot. I began to think of other ways that the path of this novel could follow. Some of the elements within the plot were predictable, but it was an overall wonderful experience.

The character, Billy, is a typical teenager who is on a path to find himself. In this sense, I speak of him opening his eyes a bit further. The setting takes place in California, the other side of the United States that I have never been to. California seems to be overly shown in television shows, movies, etc., so it was not all entirely hard to follow in terms of certain activities that Californian teenagers are into. The boy is a surfing guide, which is an occupation that I cannot relate to as someone living in Toledo, Ohio; however, I got a good laugh out of that thought. The novel was different from the others that were assigned. The text is easier to read; I can see how young adults can relate to the language being used throughout the novel. I would suggest this novel for freshmen in high school because of some harsher words being used such as “bitching.” I like the way that the author used tone and language to his advantage. It definitely makes it an easy read for his targeted audience.