Ball Don't Lie
Summer Reading
10th Grade
Ball Don’t Lie
Ball Don’t Lie by Matt de la Pena was a legendary realistic fiction novel in which a young boy faced the challenges of everyday life in the projects. The protagonist Sticky is a boy from the slums of California who spent a large portion of his life in an orphanage. Throughout the years he has changed foster parents, but has never found the right one. Sticky is passionate about basketball and is known to be a prodigy at what he does. He strives to be the best at what he does and would play endlessly at Lincoln Rec. The people around liked him and had a good reputation at school. Then again like all others in the streets he had a past and it wasn’t the best. It consisted of his passion for basketball, he didn’t have a father and his mother died when he was only 5 and the fact that he grew up in the projects. Although he is an extraordinary basketball player, Sticky has a deep past which ultimately affected how his life developed.
Firstly, growing up Sticky had no father and his mother died when he was at the peak of his childhood. Without a father he had didn’t have the dream childhood as a son. With this said he grew up not knowing how it was to have a father. Also Sticky’s mother, Baby, had many boyfriends who weren’t the greatest role models for him. For instance, Mico was into the drug game and had exposed these things on Sticky he was very young. “You gonna bring over that six-pack before you leave”? (57). This played an immense role in Sticky’s involvement in drug use and drinking. Furthermore Baby had died right before Sticky’s eyes. This had impacted him very strongly due to the fact that he had only experienced the affection a mother shows for her child only for a short time. With this piece of his childhood missing, it had a long term effect on him. These reasons had developed his interest in the use of drugs and alcohol use.
Life in the projects was not an easy one for
10th Grade
Ball Don’t Lie
Ball Don’t Lie by Matt de la Pena was a legendary realistic fiction novel in which a young boy faced the challenges of everyday life in the projects. The protagonist Sticky is a boy from the slums of California who spent a large portion of his life in an orphanage. Throughout the years he has changed foster parents, but has never found the right one. Sticky is passionate about basketball and is known to be a prodigy at what he does. He strives to be the best at what he does and would play endlessly at Lincoln Rec. The people around liked him and had a good reputation at school. Then again like all others in the streets he had a past and it wasn’t the best. It consisted of his passion for basketball, he didn’t have a father and his mother died when he was only 5 and the fact that he grew up in the projects. Although he is an extraordinary basketball player, Sticky has a deep past which ultimately affected how his life developed.
Firstly, growing up Sticky had no father and his mother died when he was at the peak of his childhood. Without a father he had didn’t have the dream childhood as a son. With this said he grew up not knowing how it was to have a father. Also Sticky’s mother, Baby, had many boyfriends who weren’t the greatest role models for him. For instance, Mico was into the drug game and had exposed these things on Sticky he was very young. “You gonna bring over that six-pack before you leave”? (57). This played an immense role in Sticky’s involvement in drug use and drinking. Furthermore Baby had died right before Sticky’s eyes. This had impacted him very strongly due to the fact that he had only experienced the affection a mother shows for her child only for a short time. With this piece of his childhood missing, it had a long term effect on him. These reasons had developed his interest in the use of drugs and alcohol use.
Life in the projects was not an easy one for