W3 B (pgs.68-100)

Dear Carl Deuker,

I am a teenage reader of your novel Gym Candy at Edina High School, and i just finished reading pages 68-100 of the novel. I think the way you portrayed Mick Johnson in these 30 pages was phenominal. He progresed so much in so little time and it was only due to his hard work and effort. Also, i really enjoy the way you include his father in the novel. At the beginning he seemed like this "ultra-cool" dad that no one could ever resist, and a huge sucess with football and life in general. But as the book went on I (even before you layed it out in front of me) realiezed that this guy must have done something wrong in his life, and Mick finds that out as well. He had a major attitude problem that had caused him to get into alot of trouble and eventually booted off the San Diego Chargers. Mick seems to "look down" on his dad for a while after finding that out, but his head pops right back up once he makes the Varsity team at Foothill (which I thought was geneous of you to keep the flow of the book going and not lag about the simple topic of his dad). Mick as you have portrayed him in the last 30 or 40 pages ive read has come across as very different from his dad in that he is an extremely hard worker and wont ever give up/ say what the coach wants him to do is unnecesary. He worked his way up to started (partially due to Drager's problem and the trouble he got into)(Drager is the starting running back). Now around page 90 you made Mick fail in scoring that winning touchdown which is a major turning point. I see the way you are going, you are making us (the readers) feel his pain in not being as strong as the other varsity players, and wanting to get stronger, which in my opinion is going to lead to steriods, but that is only for me to find out.

Great novel thus far...

Yours Truly,

Reader Arman Shahriar