There's a Girl in my Hammerlock

Title: There’s  a Girl in my Hammerlock

Author: Jerry Spinelli

Total Pages: 199

Pages read: 52

I just started reading this book and it is mainly talking about boys vs. girls, differences and similarities. The main characters are Maise, Eric and Mr. Capelli. Maise after trying to get in the cheerleading team decides to enroll herself in the wresting team of the school, to get to know better and get close to a boy she likes, Eric Delong. She is the only girl in the team and does her best in everything.

Favorite passage:

I couldn’t believe it.

I kept staring at the list of names posted outside Miss Strickland’s office. The more I stared the more I couldn’t believe it. Other girls came, looked, went. Nobody said anything.

   I charged into Miss Strickland’s office. She was gone. I ran into the parking lot. There she was, getting into her car, fleeing.

   I raced over. She started to pull away. She pretended not to see me. I caught up and knocked on the window. She jerked into a stop, her eyes all wide an innocent. The window came down she actually smiled.

I like this passage because it was in the very first page and I chose it because it really grabbed the reader’s attention. But I find that in this passage there is irony, has inference and mood. Mood because this passage can surely tell you how shocked she was and, generally the way she felt. I also think it is irony because if you read on then she is trying to convince herself that isn’t true; in fact as you read she thinks:

The more I stared the more I couldn’t believe it.

It has inference because the writer actually gives you clues on how she feels; though without telling so.