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To Be the Best
Award winning fiction - To Be The Best is the 2017 winner for "Best Characters" in the Red City Review book awards. To Be The Best is a book that was written with the high school wrestler and high school reader in mind. The story focuses on a Midwest high school wrestling team and follows the stories of two brothers in particular. Ron Castle is a high school junior and naturally gifted wrestler. He made it all the way to the state title match as a sophomore. Nick, Ron's younger brother, is a shy sophomore. He lacks Ron's raw talent but has a ton of heart and works hard day in and day out in pursuit of his dream of becoming a state champion.
196 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 1, 2013
It is important to have goals, but it is also important to help yourself achieve that goal. It takes planning, commitment, sacrifice, and dedication. To Be The Best, by H.L. Hertel, shows how anyone can achieve their goals by describing the way the two main characters, Nick and Ron Castle, struggle through the hardships of wrestling to achieve their goals and the use of short chapters to help explain the events.
Accomplishing goals that one would set makes them feel like they are on top of the world. Big or small, a goal is a goal, and it gives the feeling of accomplishment and success once the goal is achieved. Getting to that goal is rather difficult. There are tons of barriers in place to prevent this goal from ever being achieved. It seems that the world doesn't want it to happen. They would have to keep pushing and strive for that specific goal. He demonstrates just how this happens in real life, and just how hard one would have to work to get the success they desire. Also, there will come times where focus will be lost. He describes Nick when, “. . . sweat poured out of every pore in his body as the boy struggled to stay focused on jumping rope.” (65) This shows that staying focused and motivated is often hard. There is many times where it seems that quitting is the only easy way out, like how Nick thought. If Nick would quit, then he would have gotten chastised, beaten up or kicked off a team, something that Nick didn't want to deal with.
The biggest barrier between you and a goal is sacrifice. He gives a great example of these sacrifices by using the sport of wrestling. He explains how, “Nick got to eat fries at lunch the day of the meet, because he has followed Sean’s meal plan to a tee.”(115) Knowing the background of wrestling, food is a major sacrifice. For Nick to achieve his goal of winning state with his brother, he has to carefully watch the amount of food he eats so he can make a certain weight class. It may take planning, commitment, and dedication to help get past this. Nick has a meal plan, works out every morning, and works as hard as he can at practice to help himself lose the weight he needs to, to wrestle in his weight class. This example can be applied to other goals. These sacrifices are normally big changes in life.
Going along with sacrifice, working hard and staying dedicated are keys to achieving goals. The quote, “Nick and Dino pushed each other while everyone else was trying to take short cuts. . .” (112) shows how these two wanted to become better than the rest of the team. Taking short cuts to goals seems like the easy thing to do, but all that does is make it harder to achieve that goal. By not taking the short or easy way out, one will be that much better and stronger the next time around. It will seem easy the next time. Taking short cuts shows weakness and cowardice; and to achieve goals one would need to be both physically and mentally strong to deal with the pain and struggle that comes with trying to achieve certain goals.
In addition to all of the struggles the brothers have been two, the short chapters he used help tie in everything. The chapters give the feel that the readers were watching a movie. They knew what was happening on a day by day basis. They would describe practice, wrestling meets, days at school and home. These short chapters help emphasize what he is trying to show the reader. The chapters each have their own little message that it is trying to show. Most of these messages are about the struggle of accomplishing a goal through wrestling, which is a great example to use. These messages are small, but they still pack a powerful punch. He utilizes these short chapters well and can provide a strong message within a few pages.
Hertel wrote this book for the people who needed just that extra push to succeed in whatever goal they had. He did exactly that. With the prime example of wrestling he used, it helps shows all of the physical and mental struggles one can go through, even with knowing that they might not succeed. Unfortunately, one might need some type of background information before reading this book, due to the numerous references to wrestling. Other than that, this book was written for the correct audience and would be highly recommended to one who needs to find more motivation to achieve their goals.
Accomplishing goals that one would set makes them feel like they are on top of the world. Big or small, a goal is a goal, and it gives the feeling of accomplishment and success once the goal is achieved. Getting to that goal is rather difficult. There are tons of barriers in place to prevent this goal from ever being achieved. It seems that the world doesn't want it to happen. They would have to keep pushing and strive for that specific goal. He demonstrates just how this happens in real life, and just how hard one would have to work to get the success they desire. Also, there will come times where focus will be lost. He describes Nick when, “. . . sweat poured out of every pore in his body as the boy struggled to stay focused on jumping rope.” (65) This shows that staying focused and motivated is often hard. There is many times where it seems that quitting is the only easy way out, like how Nick thought. If Nick would quit, then he would have gotten chastised, beaten up or kicked off a team, something that Nick didn't want to deal with.
The biggest barrier between you and a goal is sacrifice. He gives a great example of these sacrifices by using the sport of wrestling. He explains how, “Nick got to eat fries at lunch the day of the meet, because he has followed Sean’s meal plan to a tee.”(115) Knowing the background of wrestling, food is a major sacrifice. For Nick to achieve his goal of winning state with his brother, he has to carefully watch the amount of food he eats so he can make a certain weight class. It may take planning, commitment, and dedication to help get past this. Nick has a meal plan, works out every morning, and works as hard as he can at practice to help himself lose the weight he needs to, to wrestle in his weight class. This example can be applied to other goals. These sacrifices are normally big changes in life.
Going along with sacrifice, working hard and staying dedicated are keys to achieving goals. The quote, “Nick and Dino pushed each other while everyone else was trying to take short cuts. . .” (112) shows how these two wanted to become better than the rest of the team. Taking short cuts to goals seems like the easy thing to do, but all that does is make it harder to achieve that goal. By not taking the short or easy way out, one will be that much better and stronger the next time around. It will seem easy the next time. Taking short cuts shows weakness and cowardice; and to achieve goals one would need to be both physically and mentally strong to deal with the pain and struggle that comes with trying to achieve certain goals.
In addition to all of the struggles the brothers have been two, the short chapters he used help tie in everything. The chapters give the feel that the readers were watching a movie. They knew what was happening on a day by day basis. They would describe practice, wrestling meets, days at school and home. These short chapters help emphasize what he is trying to show the reader. The chapters each have their own little message that it is trying to show. Most of these messages are about the struggle of accomplishing a goal through wrestling, which is a great example to use. These messages are small, but they still pack a powerful punch. He utilizes these short chapters well and can provide a strong message within a few pages.
Hertel wrote this book for the people who needed just that extra push to succeed in whatever goal they had. He did exactly that. With the prime example of wrestling he used, it helps shows all of the physical and mental struggles one can go through, even with knowing that they might not succeed. Unfortunately, one might need some type of background information before reading this book, due to the numerous references to wrestling. Other than that, this book was written for the correct audience and would be highly recommended to one who needs to find more motivation to achieve their goals.
October 3, 2016
(PLOT) The book is about this kid named Nick, he is a wrestler and his brother is paralyzed. Nick has to cut some weight to be able to get down to 135 so he can be varsity. He was not very good until his coach Sean really help him and ended up pinning a returning state champ. After that his confidence went up and he started to get really good.
(CHARACTER ANALYSIS) The person that changed the most in the book is Nick. because he became more confidence and more social. At the beginning of the book Nick could not even talk to a girl named heather by the end he could. Also nick was not confident until he pinned the returning state champ. After he became more confident and started winning most of his matches.
(THEME) We need to work hard in life so we can be good at whatever we want to do. The harder you work the more good at something your going to be. Ron was paralyzed due to a car crash. but he worked hard in theory and was always doing things he can do to get better. By the end of the book he could walk with a cane. We need to work hard if we want to do things in life. "Just three more sets"(Hertel 20) Even when Ron needed to go he was making sure he was putting the work in. "... Amazed that he walked four entire steps."(Hertel 183) because he worked he was able to walk four steps. before he could not even walk
(OPINION) I liked the book because it explained everything really well. At the wrestling parts in explain how you get points, how things felt, and sometimes even explained how to do things. It explained what it is like to be a good student-athlete. It was really good book and I would read it again
(CHARACTER ANALYSIS) The person that changed the most in the book is Nick. because he became more confidence and more social. At the beginning of the book Nick could not even talk to a girl named heather by the end he could. Also nick was not confident until he pinned the returning state champ. After he became more confident and started winning most of his matches.
(THEME) We need to work hard in life so we can be good at whatever we want to do. The harder you work the more good at something your going to be. Ron was paralyzed due to a car crash. but he worked hard in theory and was always doing things he can do to get better. By the end of the book he could walk with a cane. We need to work hard if we want to do things in life. "Just three more sets"(Hertel 20) Even when Ron needed to go he was making sure he was putting the work in. "... Amazed that he walked four entire steps."(Hertel 183) because he worked he was able to walk four steps. before he could not even walk
(OPINION) I liked the book because it explained everything really well. At the wrestling parts in explain how you get points, how things felt, and sometimes even explained how to do things. It explained what it is like to be a good student-athlete. It was really good book and I would read it again
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 13, 2011
I read this one a few years back when it came out and am going to have to reread it before I start the second in a series. I so enjoyed this one, know ing the author and all.
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October 19, 2018In the book To Be The Best nick breaks his leg in the state qualifier and can not wrestle anymore this year and is mad. But he gets to be the summer leader for lifting. Sean is drunk all the time know and almost got kill by somebody breaking a bottle over his head.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews