Baseball in April

Baseball In April by Gary Soto is a pretty cool book.

It interested me because it was written by a Mexican/

Chicano author. I regularly support People of my race. The

book is composed of about 10 short stories, all about young

people. It's mostly about what kids go through in life. I

liked the one titled "The Karate Kid". Who doesn't get that

adrenaline going on after you see the Karate Kid movie?? I

know that I used to. I used stand like a stork with one knee

up high in the air. This Gilbert guy was really amazed by

the movie that he thought by doing that taunt he would scare

off bully. Boy did he get surprised when it didn't work. So

after he got beat up in front of the whole school, he signed

up for karate lessons. The lessons didn't work either so he

still got bullied around. He got tired of it and was glad

when the school closed. He preferred reading than watching

the movie, which was fake as the comics he read. I also do

think that karate for Mexicans don't work. The Mexican way

of fighting is a madrazo limpio and a machetazos. Nada que

kick y chop.

Another story I thought was pretty cool was the "The

Marble Champ". I know that a lot of kids have this problem

of having a great mind, but struggle when it comes to

physical action. I never went through this because my dad

used to play for a soccer team and I used to practice with

him in my childhood years. The main character was a girl

named Lupe. She was great at everything except sports, so