The Schoolboy
by Tony Rosa
THE SCHOOLBOY by Tony Rosa
Category: Contemporary
Age Recommendation: Grades 6+
Release Date: 4/5/06
Publisher: iUniverse
Reviewed by: Grandma Bev
Rating: 4 Stars
Fourteen-year old Sam Parma has only played one game of 9-hole golf in his life...he's a baseball guy...but Sam's mom
wants Sam and his little brother, Matthew, to enter the renowned Schoolboy Junior Golf Tournament that Uncle Charlie
won when he was a teenager. It's an annual event and both boys can enter the competition since there are separate
categories for each age group. The tournament is today, and she plans to drop the boys off at the golf course. The set of
clubs that Grandpa had given Sam are stamped "ladies" on the bottom, and most are repaired with electrical tape. He
would like to have a better set of clubs, but, oh well...it will probably be fun.
Sam is teamed up with three older boys in the fourteen to seventeen age bracket. There is Chad Ashworth, Jr., who is
dressed to the nines, and has a professional set of new looking clubs. Definitely a Country Club kind of guy and probably
nearly a pro. Buzzy uses verbal profanity and throws loud tantrums when things don't go quite the way he wants. The third
boy is a seventeen-year-old, cigarette-smoking, long-haired kid named Mark Crowe. His indifferent attitude makes him
seem like bad news from the start.
Sam definitely has his ups-and-downs during the game, but he meets the challenges with integrity and honesty, and makes
an exciting par on the 7th hole. There are many unexpected obstacles, and a frightening confrontation between Sam and
Mark Crowe as Sam stands up for what he knows is right. Matthew, as well, has a surprising game result.
Tony Rosa has penned this exciting, fast-paced story based on some of his own experiences. Rosa incorporates some
wonderful moral lessons in this easy-to-read story that would encourage even reluctant readers to join Sam Parma in a
game of golf. The realistic characters are just like some people that you probably know. I hope to see more of Sam's
adventures from this talented first-time author.
