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Author Archives: 24lukes
Who was Muhammad Ali? By James Buckley Jr
I am reading the book “Who Is Muhammad Ali” by James Buckley Jr. which is part of the “Who Was” series. The book is about Muhammad Ali, the world’s greatest heavyweight boxer. He is famous for his great boxing skills. He was born January 17, 1942 and is now 74.
One big event was when he changed his religion from Christianity to Muslim. His original name was Cassius Clay but when he switched religions, he changed it to Muhammad Ali. It was a big event because the christian fans were angry with him. More importantly, he refused to be drafted because he didn’t believe in the Vietnam war. Muhammad Ali was convicted for refusing to go to the war and had to give up his championship belt and boxing until the court dismissed the case. One of his biggest fights was against George Foreman in Zaire, Africa. He wanted to earn his belt back to regain the heavyweight title which meant he had to beat George Foreman. Ali knocked him out in the 8th round and took back his championship. In 1984, he was 42 years old and diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease which affects the central nervous system. He had trouble speaking and walking and over time his face became frozen. Doctors felt that being hit in the head so many times caused the Parkinson’s disease. This was his new fight.
Muhammad Ali was a super talented boxer. He had 61 professional fights. He won 56 fights and won 37 of them by KO. KO means Knock Out. He was also a bragging poet to all his competitors. Here are 2 of his famous poems. “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, his hands can’t hit what his eyes can’t see.” The second one is “I have wrestled an alligator, I have tussled with a whale. I have handcuffed lightning, and put thunder in jail… Only last week, I hospitalized a brick. I’m so mean I made medicine sick.” Muhammad Ali was an activist and a peacemaker. He was on a mission to help the poor and the hungry. Also, after traveling through Africa, he realized that black people were not treated like second class citizens, like many black Americans. Many black Africans held very important jobs. Ali fought for equality in America.
I really enjoyed this book because I like boxing and because Muhammad Ali is a great boxer and funny with his poems. In boxing history, only a few men had ever won back a championship title they had lost. On October 30, 1974, Muhammad Ali did. Muhammad Ali always predicted how many rounds the fights would last and he was usually right. He said this in 1963 against Doug Jones: “Jones likes to mix, So I’ll let it go to six. If he talks jive, I’ll cut it to five. And if he talks some more, I’ll cut it to four!” I would recommend this book because Muhammad Ali was confident, talented, loved the sport and he was passionate about his career. The book teaches you about his life as a boxing champion, a family man and his life as an activist. Muhammad Ali reminds me of Rocky Balboa. Muhammad Ali and Rocky Balboa were both great boxing champions. In 1986, doctors found out that Rocky had suffered significant brain damage from all the blows to the head and in 1984 Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. His brain was not making the right connections to some of his muscles anymore. I really enjoyed the book so I give it a rating of four stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Crossover by Kwame Alexander
The book I’m reviewing is called Crossover by Kwame Alexander. The book is about a boy named Josh Bell, also known as Filthy McNasty, and about his twin brother Jordan Bell, also known as JB. They are thirteen year old twins. The author uses poems and rhymes to describe their lives on and off the basketball court. The main characters, Filthy and JB fight often as brothers do and the conflicts get pretty bad.
Josh got the nickname Filthy McNasty when he and his dad were listening to a musician named Horace Silver and his dad says, “Josh, the cat is the real deal. Listen to the piano, fast and free, Just like you and JB on the court.” His dad dedicated the song “Filthy McNasty” to Josh.
One day, Filthy decided that he wanted dreads like his dad. While watching a replay of his dad’s old games, Filthy noticed that his dad’s hair looked like wings taking him higher and higher. Filthy is girl-crazy but never gets any girls. He is good in the paint (an area on the basketball court) and he can dunk. Jordan got the nickname “JB” from the initials of his first and last name. JB is bald, a great shooter, a girl magnet, and likes to bet with his brother. His dad is a sportscaster and was a former basketball player for the European League. His mom, also known as Dr. Bell, is the assistant principal at the boys’ junior high school.
Filthy and JB made a bet. The bet was that if the game was tied and it came down to the last shot and JB get the ball didn’t miss the shot, then he gets to cut off Filthy’s hair. If JB misses the shot, he has to walk around naked at lunch time. The twins changed the bet because they thought it was too bad. They changed it to if JB lost he would have to moon the nerdy group of 6th graders at lunch, but if Filthy lost, he would only have to cut off one lock of hair. The game was tied with three seconds left. He shot with one second left; the ball was flying in the air and went right into the hoop and Filthy lost the bet.
Filthy and JB’s dad has a heart attack and dies. Filthy had a one-on-one basketball game with his dad. While his dad was trying to dunk, he fell and passed out. Filthy screamed “HELP PLEASE!” to the crowd. His dad was rushed to the hospital and was in a coma because of a myocardial infarction. Myocardial infarction happens when blood flow to an area of the heart is blocked long enough time that part of the heart muscle is damaged or dies. After 19 days in the hospital his dad died at thirty-nine years old.
On page 14, Filthy’s quote helped me discover more about his character. “My hair is long my height’s tall. See I’m the next Kevin Durant, LeBron, and Chris Paul.” This quote helped me discover that he thinks he is really good at basketball like Kevin Durant, LeBron, and Chris Paul.
Skeleton Creek, by Patrick Carman
My review I will talk about is called Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman. The story is about two friends a boy named Ryan and a girl named Sarah. The story takes place in Skeleton Creek. The main problem is that there are a lot of scary and weird things happening in Skeleton Creek. Ryan and Sarah are trying to find out who is behind all of these ghostly events.
Sarah goes to the Dredge which is a big building that someone had died in and now there is a ghost who haunts it. Sarah finds the ghost and gets so scared that she runs away. She takes videos and e-mails it to Ryan while he writes it in his journal. The whole book is written like it is Ryan’s journal. When Ryan was watching Sarah’s video he saw a message in the background and it said “Are you the alchemist?” An alchemist is like a potion maker. Sarah decided to go back to The Dredge to figure out more clues using a video camera. She then returns to the dredge with Ryan a second time to find even more clues. Ryan is brave because he was not allowed to talk to Sarah on a phone or ever,because she keeps going back to the Dredge. Ryan is also secretive because he has been talking to Sarah for so long and the parents don’t even know.
Skeleton Creek is my favorite book because it is scary and exciting. You also get to go on the computer and watch videos that relate to the story being told. I rate this book a whopping FIVE STARS!!! It is my favorite book EVER!