Taking Sides

Title: Taking Sides

Author: Gary Soto

Summary:   Lincoln is a star basketball player for Franklin Junior High, a tough school in a bad neighborhood.  Then he moves to a nicer school district and goes to Columbus Junior High.  When he has to play against his old school, he doesn't know if he should play hard and seem like a traitor to Franklin or be easy and seem like a traitor to Columbus.  In the end he realizes that he's not like the Columbus kids.  He's a Franklin through and through, wearing a Columbus uniform.  He plays for himself and for the love of the game, not worrying about who wins.  

Stars:  7.  Not one of my favorite genres, but Gary Soto's writing is really realistic.  

Violence:  6.  Fighting is discussed, but never described in detail.  Lincoln has a toe injury and a knee injury, and both are described (the injuries, not the acquiring of them).  

Romance:  6 for discussion of boyfriends (come on, I mean, they're in eighth grade, but still . . .) and minimal hand-holding.  

Language:  0

Appropriate for:  junior high/middle school

Other:  This was a good exercise of my Spanish.  For the words I didn't know, there was a glossary in the back (which I never found until I was finished . . .).  I liked the culture intertwined in this book (for example, the tortillas at all meals and speaking Spanish at home).