“Gym Candy”, by Carl Deuker

Deuker, Carl. Gym Candy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. Print.

I so wanted to like this book, but I just couldn’t.  I made it to the 50-page mark, but gave up.  It had been recommended as a list of good books for kids; in fact, I think it was the same YASLA 2010 book list that recommended After-School Nightmare, as part of a list of books dealing with teen bodies and their issues.

I picked it to read now because we had a boy in the house interested in football, but the plot lines about steroid use and father-son relationships were either over his head or touchy subjects, so it wasn’t suitable for that.  I found the storyline too contrived, clichéd, and obvious to be worth reading myself.  So, I will not finish it, but I won’t give up on Deuker yet – fiction ‘about’ sports adds an appealing dimension for boys.