Choice Book Report 3

Bullet Point

Peter Abrahams

   Wyatt Lathem never knew his father. He never knew him because his dad is in jail. Sonny Racine, Wyatt's dad, apparently committed a murder. His mom never really told Wyatt about him, just that he was convicted of murder. Wyatt grew up just with his mom. Later, she got re-married to Rusty Halenka. They had Wyatt's half sister, Cameron, who they call Cammy. Rusty and Wyatt do not get along very well at all, so mostly growing up with just his mom, and a really hard step-dad, really shaped him. He is a huge baseball lover. Probably the best on his team. The economy around East Canton isn't very good, so when the school can't afford to keep any of the sports teams or academics Wyatt doesn't even know what to do. His coach tells him he could probably get a transfer position down in Silver City. Wyatt accepts it right away. Silver City is mainly where the whole story takes place.

   Wyatt is obviously in good physical shape since he's played baseball his whole life and has to put up with Rusty. I don't know if he had a job, but he must have a decent amount of money if he can drive 200 miles to Silver City, afford everything he needs to get there and still have a bunch left over. He also drives a Mustang, and apparently has nice clothes.

  Silver City is where you find out the most about him because he meets Greer. Wyatt is very accepting of everything, almost too accepting. He just kind of accepts everything people tell him, especially later in the book. "Last year, when things started to go bad- the economy, all that- the amusement center burned to the ground. My dad was found guilty of arson in a court of law- so it must be true, right?" -Greer Torrence. Later Wyatt was talking to Aunt Hildy and she said, "It was pretty clear that she was involved, too- they just couldn't prove it, is all." Wyatt choose not to believe that because Greer had told him something else. He's mostly too accepting of Greer and his mom.

   Wyatt has a huge heart. He forgives so easily and does things for others too. He doesn't like to make people feel bad. Before he leaves he really wants to help out his mom and make sure she's alright. Cammy too. Make sure they have money and live with out him. Let's Dub take the position on the team, " You go. You take the position. You're  better anyway. I can't hit the curveball, and that means I'll wash out sooner or later."

   Though later he meets his dad. Sonny and Wyatt are so much alike. Sonny was a baseball player, he's smart and seems to know what Wyatt's thinking. Wyatt thinks Sonny is innocent, so he want to help him prove it. He's helping Greer too since Greer thinks he's innocent too.

   He has intuition and listens to his instincts well. He knows when he's in trouble and comes up with a quick solution. When he sees something that could lead him closer to the answer he follows it. He'll play along with things to get what he wants, and he's good at it. You might think he's dumb because he has poor grades, but he's actually very smart and has a lot of common sense.

Part 2/Recommendation

  Peter Abrahams is a very, very good author. Last quarter I read his book, Reality Check, and I loved that book, so I decided to read another one of his books. He mostly writes thrillers and suspense novels. He plans out his books so well, I wonder how he does it. From the two I read, they start out a little slow for the first chapter or two. Then it's very attention grabbing, and the end has a HUGE twist. Something you wouldn't even suspect or think of.
  Bullet Point was so good, and different from Reality Check. I really wanted to just keep reading it and find out what happens next. Try to figure out what's going on and who did it. It seemed like Greer and Wyatt had a love/hate relationship going on. First they'd fight, Greer would run off, Wyatt would find her or she'd come back, then they'd kiss and make up.
  Wyatt would always get these creepy, at least I thought they were creepy, calls from his dad that's in jail. Greer would always be getting calls from some guy in Hong Kong. Suspicious? Well Peter wouldn't tell you anything so you couldn't know who it was. He said a few things about a few people. He would lead you towards someone else, like a red-herring, except you didn't know who the red-herring was. In most books you can probably put the pieces together and figure out the whole book before you even finish reading it, but in this you couldn't even figure it all out until the last page. At least he didn't leave me hanging.
   I would recommend this to probably anybody around my age. You could easily relate to the book. Maybe not the whole dad in jail because he's a convicted murderer thing, but with what he's feeling and going through with school, Greer, his family, and sports. It's only about 300 pages, so it doesn't take that long to read.
  The book has some humor too, so it's not just boring reading about some kid helping his dad and having some annoying, short-tempered girl following him around. Dub is probably one of the funniest guys in the book.
'"How was practice?" asked Wyatt.
"Not bad," Dub said. "It's such a piss-off."
"Dub," said Aunt Hildy.
"But it is, Aunt Hildy. They-we've got nobody close to Wyatt in the outfield. He'd be starting in center and leading off, maybe even batting third."
"I didn't mean that," Aunt Hildy said. " I meant your language."
"Language?"
"Piss-off," said Aunt Hildy. "We're at supper."
"Oh."'
He just says, oh and he goes on after that with some more of  "that language".
  Peter Abrahams is a brilliant author and I would recommend any of his young adult books. They're suspensful, attention grabbing, funny, and have huge twists you'd never suspect.