The Contender

Before you can be a champion,you have to be a contender.Alfred Brooks is scared. He's a high school dropout and his grocery store job is leading nowhere. His best friend is sinking further and further into drug addiction. Some street kids are after him for something he didn't even do. So Alfred begins going to Donatelli's Gym, a boxing club in Harlem that has trained champions. There he learns it's the effort, not the win, that makes the man — that last desperate struggle to get back on your feet when you thought you were down for the count.

First sentence: He waited on the stoop until twilight, pretending to watch the sun melt into the dirty gray Harlem sky.

Year

1967

Language

English

Publisher

Harpercollins Childrens Books

Editions

9

Pages

182

ISBN

9780060239190

Data source: Wikidata