Imitate the Tiger [Paperback]

Jan Cheripko (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1998

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY.

--This text refers to the School & Library Binding edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A high school football player struggles with alcohol dependency and ends up at a rehab school for teenagers. Ages 12-up. (Aug.) r
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up?Chris Serbo, a senior, is an outside linebacker for the Valley View High School Dragons. He is also an alcoholic. His first-person story is revealed in two ways. Before each chapter, a brief italicized account tells what's going on in the present as Chris grapples with the Twelve Steps and, after football season is over, tries to finish high school at a rehabilitation facility that he's been forced to enter. In the main body of the novel, the troubled teen recounts his championship season with the Dragons, along with the downward spiral his personal life took due to his drinking. Cheripko portrays a young man whose mother died when he was five and whose absentee, career-military father is a drunk. Chris's two main pleasures, football and partying, are intimately detailed in the story. While the signs of dependency are all around him?falling grades, lies, losing friends?Chris remains firmly in a state of denial. Only toward the very end of the book does he show that he might be ready to face up to his problems. While the locker-room lingo and dialogue are presented in a mild manner, the author doesn't hold back in describing Chris's stupefying behavior during his weekend binges. A frank account of an at-risk teen fighting for his life.?Tom S. Hurlburt, La Crosse Public Library, WI
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Boyds Mills Press (October 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563977052
• ISBN-13: 978-1563977053
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #472,708 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #46 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Personal Health > Teen Health > Drug & Alcohol Abuse

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a really powerful book for teenagers and I am one, November 17, 1999

By 

Steven ([e-mail]) (Montgomery, New York, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Imitate the Tiger (Library Binding)

This is a really good book. The scenes of the story come alive. I have to read it for 9 AD English and it was one of the first school books that I enjoyed reading. We have to read it because it is about the school I go to, Valley Central High School. The football stats are correct to because in 1969 we won the Section IX championship and went undefeated.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alcohol and Addiction: Imitate the Tiger Review, December 5, 2001

By 

"reffahcs" (Edinburgh, IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Imitate the Tiger (Paperback)

This book was on the same level as teen life during high school years. There are a lot of teens like Chris Serbo out there. Some kids turn to drugs or alcohol because their home life isn't good or they're depressed. In Imitate the Tiger, alcohol controls Chris Serbo's life. He is a senior in high school, a linebacker on the football team, and his life is a downhill tumble and an uphill struggle because of his addiction to alcohol.
He doesn't get along with his only guardian, his Aunt Catherine, and he justifies his drinking by blaming his dad's alcoholism and his friends'drinking. However, what Serbo doesn't realize is that he takes it too far. He gets drunk at a school dance, and it becomes one of the worst nights of his life. Chris risks his position on the football team as linebacker with his drinking.
His English teacher, Mrs. Whittaker, confronts him with his problem and he gets mad. Chris doesn't think he has a problem; he says he doesn't drink any more than anybody else does, but he does. He steals from his aunt's liquor cabinet, and he sneaks into bars after football games. A mutual decision toward the end of the book changes his life. Mrs. Whittaker, his Aunt Catherine and the principal decide to send Chris to a school for alcoholics to help him with his problem. He goes to try to conquer his alcohol demons.
I recommend Imitate the Tiger to any teen that knows someone going down the wrong road or likes an eye-opening story.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Title, January 2, 2001

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Imitate the Tiger (Paperback)

I liked this book a lot. It's about a boy whos in college and plys for the high school football team. He's an achoholic. They send him to a special school for ... and ... . It tells about his life and his life was not so bad.I highly recomend this to advanced readers and people who like sports. It does have some bad language in it though. It's a really good book.