Imitate the Tiger

Comment: and I still remember readingit on the plane home. It's a great story and Jan was one of those teachers I'll never forget.

Comment: Chris hasn't had the easiest time in life. His mother died when he was a small child. His father was in the army and away from home a lot of the time, so sent him and his older sister to live with their aunt. Chris and his aunt have always clashed; she nags him too much and so he doesn't pay her much attention. When his sister goes to college, Chris and his aunt are left alone, and both are unhappy.

The only two things that bring Chris happiness are football and drinking. He is a pretty good football player, on his high school's varsity team, and this season is shaping up to be the best season ever, with a tough new coach driving them to win.

But as the football team is finding success, Chris is getting worse and worse at controlling his own life. His grades are awful and his drinking is getting steadily more disruptive, especially when drinking causes him to do things he doesn't really want to do. Will he be able to get himself under control?

I liked the support the characters in this book showed for Chris, especially his history teacher who wasn't afraid to step in to help him. I also liked reading Chris' journal entries along with his memories of the school year.

I thought Chris' character was incredibly whiny and obnoxious, though. I couldn't believe Polly would continue to be his friend or anyone would be as civil to him as they were.

Comment: This was a very good book I normally don't read too much but this book i could barely put it down. This book is about a teenager having problems, he drinks so that was that the start of it he is a linebacker for the football team at his high school. He ends up goin to rehab and learning from his mistakes. This book would probably be good for young teens goin through tough times.

Comment: Imitate The Tiger
By Jan Cheripko.

The senior at Valley View High, Christopher Serbro was given away when he was a little boy to his Aunt Catherine by his father who was a low paid alcoholic that didn't know how to take care of his children. His mother's death was too much to handle for his father. Before Christopher's mother died, Chris's father was in the military. That's all he knew how to do. He would go to work drunk, come home drunk, and when his wife died one day, he didn't know what to do.
Chris is an athlete. Chris plays football for the Valley View High team. He loves football because it's the only way he can get away from his problems such as his father, and Chris's ex girlfriend leaving him for someone else. Chris just likes to run away. He doesn't know how to control his feelings, and his abuse of alcohol. He doesn't know how to control his thirst for alcohol and he blames everything on his father. When Chris does drink, and people remind him that he drinks too much he tells them that he isn't an alcoholic like his father. Deep down inside he knows they are right about his drinking habits. Christopher's friends are not the best in the world, sometimes but there are there.
The audience should read this book because it's a good learning experience about a boy becoming a man that has alcoholic problems in his life. To learn how Chris to control his anger and his family. Suddenly he doesn't know whom to trust because he has no friends. What he's feeling when he is alone at home or when someone hit's him he doesn't know how to react he wants to hit them back because reflexes tells him to but he doesn't know what to do. Chris is an emotional boy that cry's when he get hits but that's him he just doesn't know how to handle things he wasn't brought up in a life that was loveable life so when he cry's he wants someone to hold him, and love him but no ones there.
Chris is an American citizen that lives in the United States. He lives with his Aunt Catherine in an old house. Chris goes to school at Valley View High School.

Comment: Chris Serbo is a senior in high school that is faced with the problem that is ruining his life, alcohol. In Imitate The Tiger by Jan Cheripko he is desperately trapped in a deep hole that he cannot get out of, for he lost his girlfriend, his grades are dropping, and his relationship with his aunt is deteriorating.
He lives with his aunt because his mother is dead and his father is a drunk in the army and can't be there for him. Chris plays football for love from his coach, John Popano and his best friend Billy Krovats and his friend Polly play a big role in that they are there for Chris when he needs to talk about his problems. The only way he can disappear out of the trap is the wonderful feeling of hitting someone in football or the great sensation of getting drunk, but he doesn't quite understand what alcohol is doing to him. He thinks he has control over his life but through the book he learns the truth about himself.
I believe that many teenagers could relate to the situations Chris is dealt with and the enjoyment comes from how Chris is finding himself and how it all ends up. I believe it is a great book and to me it seems like Chris Serbo is a real kid in a real world.