Sticks- Joan Bauer

At this point, I've read several of Joan Bauer's books: Best Foot Forward, Rules of the Road, Squashed, Backwater, Stand Tall... pretty much everything but Peeled and Thwonk, both of which are in Mount TBR waiting for me, so it's safe to say I am a Joan Bauer fan.

Mickey Vernon wants to win the Youth Pool tournament more than anything in the world. But to do that, he has to beat Buck Pender, a boy who is three years older than he is, though he lacks Mickey's desire. And Mickey's history. Mickey's father was a world-champion pool player, so the game is in Mickey's blood. Buck Pender also doesn't have Joseph Alvarez, a cowboy who was Mickey's father's best friend and pool protege. With the help of this colorful cast of characters, Mickey could possibly be the pool champion.

This book was not as good as the others I have read by her. Having said that, I don't play pool. (I have before, and I'm really bad at it. Maybe Arlen, Mickey's best friend, is right, and pool is all about math; I'm bad at that, too.) I had a hard time relating to Mickey, and ususally relatable characters are one of Joan Bauer's strong points.

Good points? Although I had difficulty relating to Mickey, I still rooted for him, and still loved some of the other characters, in particular Joseph Alvarez. In fact, I'd be interested in a story about Joseph.

And that's all I got tonight. I can't do an insightful book review when I'm sleepy.