Choice Book Report 2

   Reality Check

By: Peter Abrahams

  Cody Laredo LOVES football. It's his life, besides his girlfriend, Clea. Cody is the main character in my book. He isn't very good at school. Clea is so smart. She aced every class accept for calculus. Both Clea and Cody are eleventh graders. He lives in Little Bend, Colorado with his dad in a small apartment above the Red Pony. Cody is QB of the football team. They were doing really good until a sore loser ran into him and tore Cody's ALC. Junior year is the most important year and now Cody can't play. I'd say that Cody can make some good decisions and others I wouldn't make myself. He took not being able to play actually really well, better than his own dad. He worked out at the gym everyday and his knee got better.

  Cody wasn't very good at school to start with, but I think it was because he wasn't trying hard enough and that's why he dropped out. He dropped out because he said he wasn't good at school and he kept missing it because of his knee. To me it just sounds like he's giving up, but he did get a job paying more than minimum wage. That was the only time he gave up.

  Because of a B in calc, Clea got sent to a boarding school in Vermont. She went missing. It was all over in the papers. Cody had broke up with her before she left. When he finds out he goes all the way to Vermont to look for her. He doesn't really reveal much of himself to others, and he plays detective a lot. I think it says that he cares deeply for people close to him, but he's too negative about himself. He doesn't give himself enough credit. He's so positive about everyone else, says good things, but he doesn't say too much about himself. Cody needs to give himself more credit for what he does.

  Another thing is he has a good sense of judgement...most of the time. You can't let your guard down and it's hard to know who to trust. He didn't let his guard down and he judged who to trust pretty well I think. One part in the book that really showed this was when Cody was driving down the road, at night, and noticed a car behind him. He sped up, so did the car. Finally Cody finds out it was a cop and the cop pulls him over. Cody was sure if this was just some poser or a legit cop, so he didn't give away to much information and never let his guard down with him.

  Last thing is Cody doesn't seem to know what to say at important times, says the wrong thing, or doesn't understand what something means. A lot of times it's funny. An example would be, '"Why?" Cody said. The word just popped out, totally unplanned, not even making any sense that Cody could see. He clicked off." That's what he said to his dad on his phone after he left Colorado to Vermont. 'Cody hadn't known what to say to that.' An example of Cody not knowing what to say during a job interview.

  Overall I'd say Cody is good at making decisions, has a pretty good sense of judgement, but should probably think before he speaks or actually think of something to say!

             Part 2/Conflict

  I think there was conflict everywhere in the book. Conflicts with the weather, others, himself, even animals. First there are problems between Clea and Cody as one and Clea's dad. It doesn't actually say, but you can get that Mr. Weston, Clea's dad, doesn't like Cody being Clea's boyfriend. He seems to think he's bad for her and that's why she got a B in calc. Then between Clea herself and Mr. Weston, he likes perfect. A 'B' in calc isn't perfect enough for him, so that causees more problems between all three of them. Mr. Weston ships Clea off to boarding school in Vermont, Cody breaks up with Clea. That's actually a decision I wouldn't have made. Cody took "advice" from his dad and it didn't make much sense to me. I don't think Mr. Weston likes Cody because he's not loaded with money and he isn't very good at school. Those are just little ones at the begining.

  When Cody's in Vermont there's a huge conflict between Cody and what ever made Clea disappear, whether it's nature, a person, or herself. It's not necessarily right there, it's more indirect. I don't want to give away the book, but there were somethings I wouldn't have done. The way he ended up and the choices he made were actually things I wouldn't have thought of and they were actually really good ideas.
  Another conflict was with nature. Cody, not really thinking, didn't bring winter clothes. No boots, gloves, hat, not even a warm jacket. So while there's a search group looking for Clea, it's snowing. Driving didn't seem like a problem for him. But he never bought gloves or anything. He thought about it, and he had lots of money. If I were him I would've bought at least something to keep me warm.
  There were conflicts with Cody himself too. Deciding on where to go to college. Clea wants him to be somewhere close, but he wants to go for football. Then he's thinking about being away from her and other colleges. He switches back and forth about that a lot. Then there's problems when he breaks up with Clea. First when his dad says they should break up because they're too different, Cody disagrees.Then later when Clea's about to leave he decides his dad is right and he breaks up with her. Literally right after Clea leaves Cody regrets everything. I wouldn't have listened to his dad. His dad is an alcoholic and sounds like he was abusive when Cody was young. He obviously doesn't care about Cody's relationships and didn't see what Clea and Cody had. He just cares about Cody's football career. Most of this fits Cody's personality well except for breaking up with Clea.
  The book really grabs your attention and is actually suspensful. It's kind of funny too.