Boxer: Amazon.ca: Kathleen Karr: Books

Product Description

From Amazon

In the Lower East Side tenements of Manhattan in the late 1800s, there is employment for the city's huge immigrant population--except it's mostly sweatshop labor for little pay. Fifteen-year-old Johnny Woods is desperate to find enough work to support his fatherless family. When he notices a sign in a bar window asking for young men to try their fighting skills, he investigates, hoping to win the five dollar prize. He is unluckily arrested during his first fight, but ironically his luck turns when he meets former lightweight champion Michael O'Shaunnessey in jail. O'Shaunnessey recognizes Johnny's raw talent and begins training him as a serious boxer.

Once out of the clink, Johnny is winning fights, working regularly in the posh uptown New York Athletic Club, and saving money for a new home for his family in Brooklyn. But then Johnny's winning concentration is shot with the return of his alcoholic father. Does he have the stamina to continue as the family breadwinner, confront his father, and still win in the ring? A Rocky for the late 19th century, The Boxer is a good solid story with plenty of heart. Author Kathleen Karr (The Great Turkey Walk) gives Johnny an engaging first person voice: "The mind was a muscle, like any other.... But how you exercised it diagramming sentences ... hadn't dawned on me yet." His troubles with money and family will ring true with contemporary teens, while the historical setting will delight teachers, who will surely want to recommend this book as supplemental reading when teaching about the urban industrial age. (Ages 11 to 15) --Jennifer Hubert --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

"Karr offers an enticing mix of sports action, family drama and period detail in this saga of a 15-year-old amateur boxer growing up in 19th-century Manhattan," PW said. Ages 12-up.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

See all Product Description

Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
State yer name. Read the first page

Explore More
Concordance

Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover

Tag this product

(What's this?)

Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.

Customer Reviews

8 Reviews

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

4.4 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most helpful customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow., April 2 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Boxer (Hardcover)

Usually i do not like reading books. Being in 10th grade i guess that applies to everyone. Well, i found this book, and i read it in one day. It was that good. Mrs. Karr is able to keep the story very interesting with many turningpoints. Johnny ends up going from a sweatshop worker eating cabbage every day, to being a lightwieght boxing champion, and having steak and other great foods almost everyday. If you are like me, where you usually do not like reading books, this book would be great for you.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

4.0 out of 5 stars A Definite Contender, April 27 2002

By

Mel Odom (Moore, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Boxer (Hardcover)

Kathleen Karr's THE BOXER is a great story about a young man who makes his own way in the world and reaches for dreams that he would have never dared if life hadn't forced him to succeed. Fifteen-year old Johnny Woods dropped out of school and started working 12-hour days in a sweatshop ironing clothes to help his mother support his five younger siblings. His dad ran out on them a long time ago. But the money Johnny makes hardly puts a dent in the mounting bills the struggling family faces. Then, one night, he reads an ad on Brodie's Saloon about a boxing match. Whoever wins the boxing match receives a five-dollar prize purse. In 1885 New York City's Lower East Side, five dollars is a month's rent. Johnny signs up, gets his first bout and may be on his way to winning his first match, then gets arrested by the New York City Police. In 1885, prize-fighting was illegal, especially the way the sport was run in Brodie's Saloon. Sentenced to six months in jail, Johnny figures out he's got to change his life, and he finds the man to help him do it. Michael O'Shaunnessey, called Perfessor by those who know him, was a boxer and fight manager, and he begins training young Johnny. Using his wits, his muscle, and his courage, Johnny begins the transformation that will forever alter his life and the lives of those around him.

An author of a number of books, Kathleen Karr apparently loves to blend her fiction with history and real people. Other books she's written include SKULLDUGGERY (a story about a young boy helping a well-meaning grave robber practice his trade), THE GREAT TURKEY WALK (the tale of a boy herding turkeys to Denver, and the book was on the Best Book of the Year lists by SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL and PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY), and the Petticoat Party series (books about young girls going West on a wagon train. Her heroines and heroes are always well-done and draw readers into their problems and into the stories.

THE BOXER is an excellent tale and a fantastic read. The author brings images of late 19th century New York City's slum areas and lifestyles into view for young readers without hitting them over the head with history. She doesn't describe the events like they're history. She presents Johnny's world as it is and as he sees it. Of course, many readers will note the difference between then and now, but Karr leaves that up to the reader rather than drawing special importance to those facts. Karr's ear for dialogue, both internal in the first-person point of view and in the conversations between the characters, is true to life, but written so that the words on the page pass amazingly quick. She keeps up a rapid pace that encourages young readers to keep turning page. The focus she maintains on the family, and Johnny's growing vision of the family's plight and what he can do about it, is fantastic. Johnny is a great hero, but remains very human in the reader's view.

The only thing that needed a little more attention was the last fight. Karr builds the readers up to an all-or-nothing finish, yet the final showdown is somehow anti-climatic. However, the interweaving of the Perfessor's knowing remarks with scenes from the battle in progress are nicely done.

Anyone interested in getting a glimpse of the past through the eyes of a hero with a great heart will enjoy this book. Readers that like fiction that is fast-paced and filled with dialogue will blaze through this story. In addition to an enjoyable read, readers will make a new friend and gain a mentor in Johnny Woods, inside and outside the boxing ring. THE BOXER is a fun read, and the book is emotionally uplifting.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

3.0 out of 5 stars The Boxer, Mar 20 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Boxer (Hardcover)

"The Boxer" was an okay book with not a whole lot of a knockout ending. Johnny Woods a lower class kid living in the tenements of Manhattan in the 1800's is supporting his family after his father leaves 3 years earlier. Johnny is walking home from the sweatshop one night, and stops at Brodie's Saloon where they offer boxing to anyone, and the winner wins five dollars. When Johnny is fighting, the saloon is raided by the police Johnny ends up with a sentence of 6 months in prison. When in prison he meets the "Professor" Michael O'Shaunessy. Michael offers to train him in prison and continue to train him when they get out of prison at his Upper East Side New York Athletic Club. When Johnny gets out he is surprised with the return of his father. He now must concentrate on fights and his family. This was an overall okay book. I expected a better ending then what was given.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 8 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

Want to see more reviews on this item?

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 10 reviews 4.3 out of 5 stars

Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars This book will knock you out! (But not really)
That is of course, only if you like boxing. John Woods: a poor, tenament resident with a mother and young siblings to take care of, and a dead end job in the sweat shops that... Read more

Published on Feb 22 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars High in suspense! A real page turner!
"You can't handle it you weren't meant to be in the ring." Thats what the Professor said to Johnny during a boxing match then Johnny knocked the other boxer out and won the... Read more

Published on Feb 21 2002