Heat

peanut47 - I just finished the book Heat. This book was written by Mark Lupica. My book is about a character named Michael Arroyo a gifted baseball player. But there's only one problem the coaches from other teams say that he is too good to be just 12 years old. My option about the book Heat was that it was a suspenseful story. The book was also a learning book where the character learns and should make you learn to never give up no matter what anyone tells you. This book helped me learn not to give up on anything that I love and enjoy like running how you should never give up if you are a runner and to keep pushing yourself to new limits every day. This book is realistic fiction because, a kid never really had a problem that the coaches from other teams telling him, that he was to good to be 12 years old the author made so that it sounds like it could happen to but not to much so that it is nonfiction or too little like a fictional book. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a book that was a learning book where the character learns a very important life lesson. I would also like to recommend this book to people who like baseball, who likes suspense and action. An external conflict was that Michael and his family had a lack of money to pay their bills and was pretending that their died dad was visiting a sick relative. An internal conflict was that Michael's dad who had brought Carlos and him to America had passed away.

February 20, 2006
Michael Arroyo's life is heating up in several ways—some of them unpleasant. The Cuban-born 12-year-old and his older brother, Carlos, have been living alone in their Bronx apartment since the death of their father several months earlier. Afraid they will be split up before Carlos turns 18 and can become Michael's legal guardian, the two have only confided the news of their parent's passing to Michael's supportive best friend and a kind elderly neighbor who looks out for the siblings. The boys' elaborately staged ruse ostensibly convinces an official with the children's services administration that their father is still caring for them. On another front, ace pitcher Michael is barred from playing on his all-star baseball team—on track for earning a spot in the Little League World Series—when opposing coaches file a petition accusing the boy of being older than 12 and efforts to procure a copy of his birth certificate from Cuba are unsuccessful. But warming up Michael's life in a positive way is his new friendship with a beautiful, elusive girl who turns out to be the daughter of a celebrated Yankees pitcher. The finale may stretch readers' credibility, and at times the drawn-out dialogue slackens the novel's pacing. But convincing characterization and exciting on-field action help Lupica (Travel Team
) throw out a baseball story with heart. Ages 10-up.