Gym Candy

Nick Anderson Mrs. Baltz Pre-AP English 105 December 2008Gym Candy by Carl DeukerAll his life Mick Johnson has lived and breathed football. He has dreams of one day being like his dad and being the superstar. His dad has been workin with him since he was four, taking him to all the best camps, teaching him the best moves, and teaching him the most important thing; there is no crying in football. Mick starts his career playing pop warner football when he is little. He goes through his early life [...]

Gym candy is a great book. This book starts with Mick Johnson (the main character) as a 4 year old playing football in the back yard with his Dad. He was trying to get pass his dad and score. After a few try's Mick got passed his dad and his dada was so happy. In Pop warner the league before middle school. Mick was going to be a running back, but there was a new player(Drew and a new coach. Drew was beating Mick in everything. The coach takes to him and asked if tat was all you got. Then Mick sa [...]

Finally! I finished this book. Finally! I have so much to say about this book. At first, I thought the plot was interesting. I wanted to see how a football player goes through their up's and down's. How he wants to go to the extremes for his love for football. But as the book progressed, the story bored me. The plot was really slow when coming to the climax. And there was not much hype throughout the book. Not only that, there was a lot of football talk. And if you know me, I don't have a clue a [...]

There is a kid named Mick he was born with football in his blood. He was tall, has brown hair, and is one of those kids that was considered to be a jock. Mick lived in Colorado. He was always waiting for the next season and the next touchdown that he was going to make. The only thing that he didn't have was the strength and all of his coaches told him that. He kept working really hard and his coaches gave him the chance to play at the last game, and of they won his team would be named the champi [...]

This book intrigued me and I anticipated being drawn in to a high-interest and provocative plot (high school athlete takes steroids to remain competitive). That plot point was there, but was not well developed. The bulk of the book is detailed play-by-play recounting of the athlete's football practices (!) and games. Even a sports fan like me cannot maintain a high level of interest in the minutiae of practices. So much more could have been done with developing the relationship between father an [...]

One of the Best Books I’ve Ever Read Gym Candy, by Carl Deuker was one of the best books that I have ever read. I grabbed this book because of its cover and how the book related to football, but after I read it, I realized that this book is more about just a football game. The story starts out where a football player, Mick Johnson, was a star running back for all of his teams he played on. In any game he played, he scored a touchdown. On any play in his games, he ran the ball. Mick Johnson was [...]

I wanted to read this book because it was recommended to me by a student. I could have done without the football game play-by-plays (and I did eventually just skim over those), but the actual story of the young man and his struggle to live up to his dad's legacy was a good one. I'll be recommending this one to my sport-fanatic reluctant readers.

My personal response to this book is that it was amazing! I really liked this book because I could put myself in his shoes somewhat. The author really made me feel a connection with this book and I felt he did a very good job describing almost every detail. He told the story in a way that you felt you were there right alongside Mick.The plot of this story is simple. Mick was an 8th grader who got asked to play some spring football with the high school team. His friends Drew and Deshawn were also [...]

As you can tell I basically only read sports books. Mainly by Carl Deuker. This book is the best book I have ever read. Mick Johnson started kindergarden late so he is a year older than everyone. His dad was a great running back in college but then screws everything up in the NFL. Mick's dad tells him that he didnt play in the NFL because of some ankle injury. Mick decides to look on the internet to see if his dad is telling the truth. Mick finds out he wasn't. There is a gym called Popeye's and [...]

Gym Candy by Carl Dueker is a Realistic fiction novel about a high schooler named Mick who has a problem with steroid use. Mick has been the star of the football team from when he was a pee-wee. But he wanted to keep on getting better. His freshman year he was on the varsity team. He only played a little but, he did see the field unlike some of his teammates. But he wasn’t satisfied with just a little playing time, so he started going to a gym called popeyes, there he worked out super hard wit [...]

I read Gym Candy and the main character in the book is all about football, he loves it. It was inherited by his dad who played pro football. Mick is the main character and he has to face lots of challenges with new coaching, finding more information on his dad, and being pressured to take steroids.I loved the start of the book because right away the story was on. It talked about the first time he scored a touchdown with his dad. I loved how when he took steroids it went to a personal standpoint, [...]

This book was about a boy whose dad was a superstar in his high school and college years in football. He always wanted to be that good to. However he was stopped short of scoring a touchdown in the last game of the season. Then to become the best he then started taking steroids. As he started taking them he started to lose relationships and the steroids started to take over his entire life.

Good read on a topic I feel is overlooked in high schools today. The ending (epilogue)through me a curve I didn't expect. It makes you think.Used this as a read-aloud for a class that didn't think they would like it because it involves football. What they didn't realize at first was that it contained so much more. They begged to read it when we had extra time.

Personal Response: I read the book called Gym Candy. I thought it was a very good book. It was one of my favorite sports books I have ever read. It was very interesting, and it gave me some good life lessons that I can use from this book.Plot: In the book, there was this kid named Mick. Mick was a son of Mike Johnson who used to be a professional football player. Mike lived and breathed football. He was always talking about football. Mike pushed his son to live and breathe football, and all he k [...]

I read the book Gym Candy by Carl Deuker and the story follows a teenage boy and his friends and they are wanting to become pro football players one day. There are in the middle school right now there names are Mick Johnson, Drew, and then Deshawn they are all on the same football team and one is a wide receiver and one is a quarterback and the other is a linebacker. But Mick johnson was running a touchdown and he is not big at all and some really big boy was coming after him and he got tackled. [...]

I read this book as part of the Battle of the Book list in 2016. I normally do not lean toward sports books, but hoped this would surprise me. Unfortunately, it did not. "Gym Candy" follows a boy, Mick, throughout his football career. His dad was an ex-football player who pushed the sport onto Mick since he was a baby. Mick's father is so insistent on Mick being a football star that he even goes as far as to hold him back a year from school. He plays football for years, and in high school, begin [...]

PERSONAL RESPONSEThis book is incredible. It shows the struggle and hardship of playing football. It really describes how challenging it is to get good at it, and become a star athlete. Once someone is there, it is easy to do stupid things to stay there. PLOT SUMMARYMick Johnson was an excellent football player, and so was his father. His father started practicing with Mick when he was really young. Going from pee wee football to high school football, Mick found challenges, but still loved the g [...]

This book starts with the main character Mick Johnson playing football in the back yard with his dad. He was trying to beat his dad and score a touchdown. After a couple of time Mick passed his dad and scored. One day Mick was giving up on one of his teammates Drew, and Drew was beating him in everything he did. If Mick wanted to play he was going to need to show more effort, in order to be on varsity team offense and defense. After a couple practices and lifts Drew became more intense and more [...]

It is a pretty good book. It sort of makes you mad about three quarters of the way through. But there are not any boring parts in the book. It is good throughout the whole thing. It did not take very long to get into. Within the first couple chapters it will hook you. I would recommend it to anyone who likes sports books or just sports.The Story is about Mick Johnson. When he was four his dad started teaching him how to play football. He would take him in their yard and have him try and get past [...]

Mick Johnson a football player who started his training around the age of four years old. Even though you think that he might be in the same age group so many kids will be the same weight wise. No he stayed back a year so he for sure would be bigger than most of his grade but that still wouldn't be enough. Growing up all he wanted was to be in the NFL make it pro instead he is sure to put his mind on something else to become the greatest but not legally

eh

Gym Candy was one of my favorite books ever!! I really liked how the author made it suspenseful and towards the end of the book it hit you hard because he was going to kill himself or his best friend. Overall this is a great book, and I would read it 100 times over.

I think this is a strong book and you should read it. This book will make you think and show you how to be better. I would read it 100 times more

Great book, would recommend to someone who loves working out and football . The reason I like this book is because, i'm just like Mick just trying to make a legacy and be great and also get big !!!

Gym candy is a great book I love this book because. Mick Johnson's determination is great to read he is so determined. Also him winning in the story is put together perfect. I also love the idea of him playing football because I do not think this story would fit in any other sport.

What do you think of when you hear the words gym candy? This is a great book with lots of back story. The beginning of the book starts when the boy is only three years old and goes all the way to 16 or 17 years old. Mick the main character is set out to be a professional football player after his dad. Through the years Mick starts to learn more about his dad bad things that change is view about is dad. He has hard times through each year on football trying to be the best running back. Unfortunat [...]

this is a good book for athletes it is about a high school football player that is going through the hardships of a high school athlete. he is playing under his fathers shadow that made it to the nfl. so now the coaches have so much expectations for him. now he has to prove to so he starts to use drugs to inhanse his performance. i recommend it to all highschool athletes.

Personal Response: I think Gym Candy is a good book and has a lot of detail. It tells a good story and is very interesting. It is very clear and easy to read. Plot Summary: The book is about this young boy who lives with his family. His dad was a great football player throughout college and played a little in the NFL. Mick (the boy) started liking football because his dad made him play when he was very young. He found out his dad lied to him about being really good, but really he was a troublema [...]

PLOTIn the start of this book, Mick Johnson is a star running back for his 8th grade team. Although his team is not that great he leads them to a winning season. As they near the end of the season, he realizes that the varsity head coach is scouting him for a possible spot on the varsity roster. He has four other running backs that he needs to pass to be the starter. He knows for sure that he can beat the first two. He does that within a few weeks of summer practice. He passes the third one a we [...]

This book is very interesting. It starts off with a young kid and his father playing football. His dad is a retired professional football player. The son is pressured to fill his dad's shoes. He starts to go to the gym regularly. Soon he realized that just going to the gym wasn't going to be enough. He was offered "gym candy" and was told it will make him buff and he will become a pro football player like his father. Little did he know what the steroids would really doI really enjoyed this book, [...]