Gym Candy By Carl Deuker Sparknotes

Carl Deuker’s Swagger is a powerful follow-up to the book Gym Candy also written by Dueker. This unpredictable, emotional book follows the protagonist Jonas Dolan who moves across the country to Seattle, Washington. Shortly after he moves, he befriends a childlike student named Levi Rawdon who “won’t even say the word ‘damn’” (261). Both are high school seniors trying to earn a scholarship to play basketball in college. Even though Levi’s game is good, his grades don’t keep up to the same high standard even though he tries extremely hard. Coach Hartwell—assistant basketball coach at the highschool—offers to tutor Levy to help bring up his poor grades. After a trip to the nearby mountains with Coach Hartwell, Levy’s entire persona changes, and he turns into a stoic, emotionless person. Shortly after, Levy tells Jonas that he was sexually assaulted by Coach Hartwell. Jonas has to decide whether he is going to tell the truth about Coach Hartwell (even though Levy doesn’t want him to) and risk his career as a college basketball player or keep the secret to himself.

Seeing the traumatic life of Levy through Jonas’s eyes was truly spectacular, and it illustrated a common theme in the book which was that life is always full of struggle and hardships. There was always a feeling of pain and anticipation as I read through this book particularly about Levy. Also, the way Deuker describes the basketball games makes it feel like you are on the court with them. The feeling and emotion in the game is clear with instances like “The crowd, which had been holding its breath while that rainbow came down from the sky, erupted. Swish!” (188). Dueker’s books—most about sports fiction—-fantasize me with the incorporation of significant conflicts on and off the