Headlock - Hardcover

Sweeney, Joyce

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 080508018X ISBN 13: 9780805080186

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR), 2006

Synopsis

A killer combination of high-interest plot and unforgettable characters "All kinds of people.  Little kids, a lot of men, even people your age come to the shows." "They come to see acrobats pretending to wrestle with each other? Kyle is this some kind of sexual thing?"
"No!  It's an athletic thing! It's called sports entertainment. Meaning, it's like a sport, but it's all scripted like theater. You've seen me watching wrestling on Monday and Thursday nights. . . . "
"Oh, that thing!  Kyle, do you mean that terrible program where they hit each other with chairs?  It's like The Three Stooges!  Why would a boy like you with all your talent and brains want to do something foolish like that?" Kyle Bailey is a high-school senior who dreams of becoming a professional wrestler. He can't tell his beloved grandmother, who raised him, because she'll think it's ridiculous, but he gets himself accepted into a rigorous training school and earns a chance at his first professional match.
He's succeeding beyond his wildest dreams, falling in love with an amazing girl, and maybe even getting his grandmother to understand a little, when things take a dramatic turn for the worse. Kyle's flaky estranged mother shows up to "help," and--to his everlasting surprise--actually does.
Critically acclaimed author Joyce Sweeney's books have been chosen as Best Books for Young Adults (ALA), Best Books for the Teen Age (NYPL), Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (ALA), and as Top Ten Sports Books (Booklist).
An honest, warm, and funny novel, Headlock will make wrestling fans of the skeptical, and Joyce Sweeney fans of everyone.

About this title

About the Author

Joyce Sweeney is the author of a dozen novels for young adults. She lives in Coral Springs, Florida, with her husband, Jay, and her cat, Macoco. Her hobbies include Native American studies, Florida natural history, and professional wrestling.

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up–High school senior Kyle quits the gymnastics team and enrolls in a school for prospective professional wrestlers, where he makes new friends and rivals and shows promise as a wrestler. After graduation, he lands a beginner's role in an established wrestler's routine. At the brink of fulfilling his dream, the teen has to give up his fledgling career to care for his grandmother, who raised him after his mother abandoned him. Although there are some descriptions of wrestling action, the focus and strong point of the book lies in Kyle's relationships. He breaks away from his high school crowd; begins a sexual relationship with a new, older girlfriend; experiences competition and camaraderie with other wrestling students; and watches friends and enemies succeed and fail. Most difficult of all is when his grandmother's health fails and he is forced to allow his mother back into his life to help with the elderly woman's care. Readably entertaining, in spite of an overly sunny conclusion and some predictability in plotting and in the minor characters, Sweeney's book is somewhat reminiscent of Robert Lipsyte's The Contender (1967) and Nat Hentoff's Jazz Country (1965; o.p., both HarperCollins) in chronicling a young man's pursuit of his dream in an adult world.–Jeffrey A. French, Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library, Willowick, OH
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Edition details

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 080508018X
• ISBN 13: 9780805080186
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 214