The Brave

The Contender #2

by Robert Lipsyte

Sonny's been an outsider all his life. He has never fit into either world: the Moscondagas on the Reservation see him as white; whites see him as Indian. So far, Sonny's managed to harness his anger -- what he calls "the monster" -- in the boxing ring. But Sonny wants out of the Res. He's headed for New York City, where nobody can tell him what to do.

Sonny doesn't count on stepping into the middle of a drug war when he gets there -- or on tangling with a tough Harlem boxer-turned-cop named Alfred Brooks. Brooks seems to think that Sonny's got the talent to make it to the top -- to be a contender. But first Sonny's got to learn to be smart, take control of his life, and beat the monster. Only it isn't as easy as it sounds....

Genres: Sports, Young Adult, Fiction, School, Realistic Fiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Bailey Balistreire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the main characters in this book are Sonny, Jake, Martin, and Jessie. Sonny is the main character. Sonny is a Native American and he loves boxing, but at the beginning of the book Sonny was boxing and the guy he was boxing was white and all of the spectators didn't really like Sonny and his Native Nation. The referee told Sonny that if he did any kicking or any kind of tricks to win he will be disqualified for the whole year but the other guy got to do any move that he wanted. Right after the bell rang saying round 2 was over, the other boxer said something to Sonny and so Sonny ran over to him and punched the referee in the face and the other boxer got knocked out.

Jake, which is Sonny's trainer, ran into the boxing ring and grabbed him and grabbed all of Sonny's stuff and ran to the truck. After Sonny and Jake get back to the reservation, they were stopped at a stop sign and Sonny was sick of being treated like crap so he ran out of the truck and ran away and when he gets to the next town he met Martin. Martin takes him to his house and they became friends. Martin takes him over by one of his friends and her name is Jessie.

Jessie lets Sonny stay at her house and a few weeks later they start dating. Sonny gets Jessie pregnant and he tries finding a job, but nobody will give him one. Jesse goes back to the reservation and asks Jake if he will help him out. At first Jake said no, but then Sonny tells Jake the reason why he needs to get back into boxing. Sonny needs the money to help support his unborn child. Every time Sonny wins he gets $1,000 and if he makes it to the last match and wins he would get $25,000. Sonny fights well and gets to go to the last match and he takes a beating. After the 3rd round he gets this feeling in his heart that if he doesn't win the match he wouldn't be a good father and he ends up knocking the guy out with 3 seconds left on the clock. Sonny overcame many obstacles in his life and wants to be a good father.

This book would be appropriate for males in the 13-17 age group.

[Jaxson Yates · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am doing my review of The Brave by Robert Lipsyte. This book is about a 17-year-old named Sonny Bear who is just trying to join the military and get off the reservation. He has always had a passion for boxing and lives with his Uncle Jake. His mom isn't around, well, she is, but just kind of comes and goes. This book is a sequel to The Contender by Robert Lipsyte, which I wish I had also been able to read.

I really liked how this book just had me gripped on the pages. I was so eager to see what happened and just so into the book, and I don't know why, but for some reason, I just wanted to read all of the time because of this. The plot just kept me interested too. One minute we were on the Reservation, the next we were on the streets of NYC.

One thing I disliked was that it was only 200 pages long. I do wish it were more, so it didn't take me 4 class times to finish. Another thing is that I wish there were a better ending. It just lead into a new book when this one could've just kept going and that really sucked.

Overall, I think this book is an amazing pick; it has a great plot, setting, and the storyline is the best part. I would recommend this book to high schoolers because it shows the importance of family and keeping the best ones close, and there's also some drug dealing, so that's why I wouldn't recommend it to anyone younger. Also, people into drama would like this book too.

I would rate this book a 4/5 Stars

[Amber Lytel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a story about Sonny Bear and his journey to discovering himself. He has moved around a lot during his seventeen years. His Mom is a single Mom, his dad was killed in the Vietnam War, Sonny never met him. He gets left at the reservation with his Uncle Jake whenever things get hard for his Mom. Jake is trying to help Sonny with the demon inside him through booking. Sonny runs to New York to try to get his Mom to sign papers allowing him to join the army. As soon as he gets off the bus in New York, he runs into Doll and Stick and gets mixed up in a drug ring. He is busted by a New York City cop Alfred Brooks. Alfred sees the potential in Sonny and works with Jake to help Sonny see his potential. In addition to Alfred and Jake, Sonny is helped along his journey by Martin and his family and Johnson who becomes his trainer in New York.

Really enjoyed reading, a very quick read. This is a book I would recommend for boys who are interested in boxing. I had a student last year who I think would of really enjoyed reading this book and could of connected to it.

[Logan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book started off pretty exciting, it caught my attention early on. I like how the author explains what Sonny is doing while he is fighting and how he captures the moment. You can clearly see what is going on in Sonny's life through out the book. One thing I like about the book is when Sonny is fighting and Lipsyte explains not only what he's doing but what he is also thinking and how he is controlling himself. Overall it was a pretty good book.

[Adrian Perez]

The Brave Sequel To The Contender is about a native boy who moved to New York to get away from the problems. He then meets a police officer that later on they become friends. He box while in new york city get very angry quickly. In the beginning of the book he was fighting and i like that part because that part shows you how he gets. I would recommend this book to people that get angry quickly.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book and I thought it was very good. I would recommend reading it. It was a realistic fiction which is a genre I have read for a while and I tend to like it 50/50 so I am always open to reading a realistic fiction.

[Tara Schuhmacher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have students who devoured The Contender and asked me if I could them each a copy of The Brave for them to read for their literature circle. (Kids asking for books is one of the greatest joys for this English teacher.)

So, I read this book too. It was for the most part just as fast-paced, easy to devour, as the original. Also, the main character is Native American, as are my students, which was a nice surprise.

My bet is they will enjoy this book too, I did. I will be finishing the series.

[Zarek Hoffman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was an ok book. I didn't really like it too much but it was alright i guess. I thought it went back and forth to much with him training to box and getting beat up again the next weak. The first thing Sonny had to do was learn how to be smart,take control of his life, and beat the monster. But it isn't as easy as it sounds.

He never really fit in anywhere. He has to do a lot of training to get where he needs to be to beat the monster. He is gonna have to train everyday of the week. He is gonna have to start at his level and be pushed until he is good enough to beat the monster. That means hes gonna be doing a lot of lifting and a lot of running and a whole lot of training for boxing.

Before sonny started to train he got into a lot of bad stuff. A lot of bad stuff he was getting into involved drugs and alcohol. He grew up in a bad area where a lot of bad stuff had happened. He never really meant to get into all of this trouble and stuff but its what he got into and he really wanted to recover from it and get a real job or hobby. He wanted a good way to get money besides drugs and hustling and all this stuff.

I would recommend this book to people who like reading about people lives changing to something bad into something good. People who like reading about boxing this would be a good book for them to read because it has a a lot of action and activity going on throughout the book.

[Giovanni Guillen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Brave by Robert Lipsyte, a nonfictional book written in 1991. A very good book about a young boy, goes by the name of sonny who is an American Indian of the Moscondagas tribe where they live on a reservation. The theme is personal victory, because Sonny wants to leave his tribe and go to New York so that he can decide what he's gonna do with his life rather then have it be decided for him.
Sonny, a boxer living on a reservation with the Moscondagas tribe wants to leave so that he can live his own life how he wants to, he decides to go to New York. Where he runs in to a lot of trouble such as a drug trade and a veteran boxer that is now a cop. Sonny refuses to get into anything else besides his boxing. He wants to be a professional boxer so he goes to many boxing rings, trains everyday to reach his goal of becoming pro. Sonny makes some friends as well but he also has to put up with racism. He went with one of his friends to a local bar to grab a drink, they sit down at a table an 3 men go up to them an begin to hastle them for being there they say to the to get out,Indians don't belong there, to go back to where they came from. They tempted them on purpose because sonny gets mad an punches one of them in the face and it turns out that those me were police officers and sonny gets arrested.
I think overall this book was very good because throughout the entire story Sonny faces hurdles of people trying to dis encourage him, saying that boxing isn't for him, and from facing tough decisions but Sonny shows determination, and doesn't let anything change his mind about what he wants to do. And The Brave kept me entertained the whole time always something happening to sonny weather it be good or bad always kept me on my toes.and it really showed me all the racism around not just against Africans but evan against American Indians as well.
I think that any one that reads this book will be entertained no matter the age, this book is appropriate for any age groups.i think this book relates a lot to other books about the constant struggle for minorities in the past evan today the hatred never ends and i think this is a good example of that.And I like this book because it is about a boxer that has a Passion for something but everything is against him but he doesn't let that stop him from doing what he loves, i think i can relate a little to him in a way.
This book is an excellent chose and i would recommend it to any one that likes a novel that will keep them on there toes an who enjoy seeing some one get past any hurdles to reach his goal.

[Aliyah Castillo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, a really great portrayal of the growing pains of adolescence and being a boy of color. Really appreciated the adults in his life. There was some crazy drama that was obviously used to advance the plot, so it didn’t bother me too much because it didn’t take up the bulk of the story. If I was still teaching, I would definitely use this book.

[Ryk Stanton · Rating 2 out of 5]

As much as I love _The Contender_, the first book in this "series" of boxing novels, I am disappointed by this one. This book was written 24 years after the original, and Lipsyte decided to stick with that time frame. So Alfred Brooks is 20 years older than in the first book, and now he is a policeman, and he interacts with a young Native American who has a great left hook and who has gotten mixed up with some bad people upon arrival in New York. Alfred serves as an inspiration to this young man and gets him some proper training and competing in the amateur boxing circles and ... aw, who cares?

Alfred is irrelevant in this book, as is Henry Johnson (who now conveniently runs Donatelli's Gym) and Bill Witherspoon (whose overweight owlish son is forced to train Sonny Bear). We get an update on James (who cleaned up, served with Alfred in Vietnam, and then was hooked on heroin again when he returned from his tour) but no one else, and the simple truth is that the book would be better without any of them. Sonny is supposedly inspired by Alfred, but that relationship is never allowed to grow, and the end of the book is just plain lazy: Alfred is shot by the bad guy from the beginning of the book who was trying to run Sonny, Sonny is banned from the amateur circuit because he had been paid to box in the past, a few other things that are just rushed one-two-three at us -- all leading to another book in the series.

Not believable, stereotypical, half-finished ... I am going to read the other two books in the series, but I am not optimistic. Too bad.

[Levi]

Book Review
The Brave by Robert Lipsyte
Review by Levi Garrison

This book started off learning about 17 year old Sonny Bear who fights amateur fights and just wants to leave the Res and join the Military. This book is recommended to people that like sports such as boxing and for people that have goals they want to accomplish. This books goal was to explain people that you need to not worry about everything else and keep your head up.

I had a great experience with this book. I thought it was fantastic because it really did tell a great story, but leaves some suspense in the end. I feel like Sonny was constantly finding trouble but sometimes trouble found him. This book did succeed in its goal of just getting past everything and focusing on the future. This book is recommended to sports fans and people who have goals. I would give this five stars.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didnt like this book because i thought its was boring. I thought this book was a good book until after a while it started to get boring. The things that I liked from this book was it talked about boxing and heritage of an indian boxer. I also liked the fact that the main character was a determined boxer. The things i didnt like about this story is because there wasnt enough action in, and I like stories that's more active. So I think if this story was more intersesting and more fun to read then I would of kept it.

[Marcus · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Brave is a good book, but it wasn't what I expected. Some of the scenes in the book are not needed, and the characters voice is not that much included in the book. The good part of this book is the details they use for the action and adventurous parts. For example, Sonny Bear(the main character) was training for a big fight, so the author used good details on how he trained and what methods he used for boxing. Overall, for me, this book deserves a 3/5 star rating. I recommend this book to kids ages 13-15.

[Levi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it. It isn't super complex but it has some really good insights into the boxing world. It has some neat Native American flavor mixed with big city life. This is not the first book in the set so I would read The Contender first. (if im not mistaken)It is a bit short if you are a fast reader you may want to pick up the whole series. This would be a good book for a sports fan type fiction reader.

[Edward Guillen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic book! Quick fun read the authors descriptions were detailed enough to paint a picture but not so over done where they talk about every blade of grass. Sonny is really a character I can root for! That's what I'm talking about! He has his flaws but they make him real. Very good book to drawn in boys and young guys that wouldn't normally read books.If you enjoyed Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman you will enjoy this as well.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a teen novel that is perfect for middle school or even 9th grade students. It has good opportunities to discuss literary elements along with discussing and following the interesting and engaging plot. Some mention of drugs, sex, and violence, but nothing so bad that I wouldn't teach it.

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sequel to the excellent YA classic The Contender. A good novel, but in comparison to its predecessor it feels a little far-fetched and predictable.

[Adam Floridia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate teaching this series!

[Noah · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was super cool and very interesting, its about boxing.

[Jordangraber · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was a ok book

[Shaquille Coleman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Brave was a pretty good book. It showed how people shoudint give up on their dreams.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was good. It was nice to catch up with Alfred so many years after I read "The Contender."

[Christian Acosta · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very good book.

[Myson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book that shows if you really want to do something in life never give up and keep pushing and never give up on your dreams and hopes and the main character Sonny shows that.

[Torre]

So far, Sonny is a young-well-skilled Indian-Caucasian boxer & he is usually taunted for his ethnicity. Until they see him in the ring. Sonny channels his inner-anger what he calls, Monster.