Mickey was practicing for the pool youth tournament of Cruckston, NJ that is being held in his family pool hall. Seeing the bright red shirt dangling outside the window for the winner which he wants really badly, he exclaimed, “I have got to win”. Have you ever wanted something really badly? I have.
He wants to beat Buck Pender, a 13 year old, part gorilla, neighborhood bully in the tournament so that he can wear the red shirt in this book called Sticks by Joan Bauer. Now Buck has a world class 9 ball pool player for a teacher. The odds are against Mickey Vernon.
He is in trouble and there is only one person who can help him, not his Grandma Poppy, or his busy sister, or not even not his genius best friend Arlen, but a cowboy named Joseph Alvarez one of his father's friends who had learned how to play pool from Mickey's father.
Mickey asks his mom if Joseph could be his pool teacher because Joseph knows how Mickey's dad plays. Fate doesn't go as planned. Mickey's mom mistrusts him. As you can see, Mickey's mom was widowed at age 27 and Joseph Alvarez didn't her but all he did was drive away in his Peterbuilt truck and didn't come back. Now he came back after 9 years. Mickey's mom was shocked. Imagine if you were her. How would you feel if you were here?
Joseph started gaining Mickey's mom trust and Mickey begs and pleads and she finally lets Joseph teach Mickey pool. Yeah! His first lesson was at Gameland but there were no pool tables at Gameland. What was he going to do? Joseph tells him to play ping- pong. Joseph keeps on winning at ping-pong. Joseph teaches Mickey one important lesson, “ You need to know how to lose and be a good sport to know how to win. ” Joseph also taught him another lesson, to focus.
Joseph seems like a nice guy. Mickey's friend Arlen points out pool is like geometry with angles. That trick helped me play pool.
Mickey's main competitor, Buck was improving and he challenged Mickey to a game. Joseph told Mickey not to play against the mean bully while he went across the country and Mickey declined. “ Chicken, Chicken ”, Buck called Mickey. “ Rack them up ,” exclaimed Mickey. They started playing and Buck messes with him mentally and they get into the fight and Mickey breaks his hand. He can play soon but he has only one week to practice for the tournament.
The big day had come and Mickey had knocked out every player, even Buck but there was a surprise player, Sledgehammer. He was gigantic! Mickey's friend Arlen was watching Sledgehammer play earlier and learnt that his weakness was bank shots. Mickey won! All Mickey had to do was to find the desire inside him. Ganas! (Desire).
Wham! Click! Pool balls still filled the pool ball's air. Mickey was still a pool loving kid but now he was a proud pool champion and the defeater of Buck. I will recommend this book to anyone who is interested in pool.
