Customer Reviews

Run for Your Life

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Book Run for Your Life is a really interesting book. I picked the book because the cover of the book looked interesting. When I first started reading the book I didnt think I was going to like it but I kept reading it and it got very interesting.

This book is about a girl named Kisha. Kisha is growing up in the projects. She lives in Oakland, CA. Kisha has started running track at the community center for a man named Darren who is her coach. She is on the team with her best friends Notonia, Jennifer, Ester, Shanika and Malika. Kisha spends most of her time at the community center. She lives with her mother,brother and her father. Kisha is going through a lot of problems at home with her parents.She finds out that her friends on the track team have similar problems with their parents.

I would strongly recommend this book to anyone that is going through a lot of problems with their parents at home.I would rate this book as a 10. In this book I like the way the author writes exactly how a child would speak.

Run for Your Life is really a great book. It could help most teens with thier problems at home.

Run For Your Life

Marilyn Levy makes Run For Your Life one of the best books to read this summer.

The author Marilyn Levy met the girls and the coach of the Acorn Track Club, and wrote their uplifting story. Kisha Clark, a thirteen-year old girl living in the projects, in California, thinks her summer will be just the same old thing as usual. Luckily, a man shows up on the doorstep asking Kisha and some of her friends if they would like to join a track team. Not until she joins, does she find out more about her family, friends, and especially herself. The track team sadly makes her parents argue a lot more, since they struggle financially. Also, some of the other girls in the team struggle, since you can't do drugs, be pregnant, and you must keep your grades up. When Kisha builds her self-esteem and courage, she then knows how it feels to be a winner.

Run For Your Life gives a heart-warming example of a young girl's life and what she does to achieve her goals. This astonishing true story puts you right in the shoes of Kisha Clark. Not only does it leave you with a tear in your eye, but also it teaches you never to give up no matter how worse the circumstances are.

I wasn't interested in the story that much at first. I just thought it was going to be about a girl spending her summer living in the projects. But, the more I read the more I loved Kisha and the novel. Her coach, family, and friends helped Kisha achieve her goals. You think this novel would be woeful and dull, but it is surprisingly hilarious and touching. What is disappointing is how the other track teams treat the Acorn track team saying "They're from the ghetto." The events that happened to Kisha seem to be getting worse and worse in each chapter, "Lots of people have setbacks in their lives. It's the winners who pick themselves up again and go on." But when she becomes stronger, the better it turns out to be. The ending is probably the best part in the story and leaves you with more hope for the Acorn Track Club.

The book, Run for your Life, is an excellent book for teenage girls to read because it deals with the every day life of teenagers and it stamps on the every day issues involving teenage girls today. Some of the issues that occur in this story will amaze you. For instance, abuse, older boyfriends, drugs, family problems, etc. These are the primary issues that surround our teenagers today.
This book was about a girl named Kisha who thought joining the track team was going to help her escape from her family problems. Kisha also had friends that were going through things that were enough to keep them in tears. Tureena was a track team member whose issues were an older boyfriend who would not allow her to be a part of the track team. Kisha's best friend, Natonia, was having problems at home with her grandmother until she was forced into a new family and home. Esther, who's another team member, was also having problems at home, has a mom who thinks joining the track team will interefere with her school work. She tells her being on after school activities right now isn't a good idea. These are the same issues that ponder within our teens in today's world.
If we had read this as a class in reading this year, it would've been popular with me because this book is like my life in writing. It's like someone viewed my life and put it in a book. The people I think would most likely read this book is teenage girls because these situations mostly occur in our teen years. I would read other books by this author because I think she did an outstanding job in writing this novel concerning our teenagers. She knew exactly how to make it appeal to the reader's feelings.
On a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the highest, I would rate this book a 5 because I enjoyed this book. I could relate to some of the issues such as family problems, drugs, abuse, older boyfriends, etc. This book was about teens and by me being a teen myself it gave me a chance to see that I'm not the only teen with problems, and I'm not the only teen who doesn't know how to deal with my problems either.

...A small-town girl named Kisha, wants to do some sport or activity that she can do to pass the time. An old abandoned warehouse was where she and her friend Natonia would hang out. A man named Darren is the coach for a track team back in California. He wants to fix up the warehouse to make it a place for the kids to play sports. Kisha and Natonia meet Darren on their way to the ice cream man. They decided that they should gather up some kids their age and start a track team.

Yes. I liked the characters in the story. The characters that I liked the most were Kisha, Natonia and Darren. The reason why I like the character named Kisha is because she is like a usual ordinary girl. She is believable because she does things like try to do things that you can't do or aren't supposed to do. The reason why I like Natonia is because she doesn't take any garbage from anyone. She is a hard person to deal with. Why I like the character Darren is because he gives the girls hope and choices that they can't make when they are at school or at home. They can make them at the center. The subject of this story appeals to me. This type of book hasn't been the type of book that interests me. The book is kind of serious and sad but is funny at times. In this book Darren gets serious when he tells the girls that they have to follow by certain rules to stay in track. The rules are: Don't get pregnant, don't do drugs, stay in school and keep your grades up. The scary parts are when Kisha is at home and her dad hits her mom. The other scary part was when her dad shot her mom. And it's funny when they sweep the track clean with the other team.

I would recommend this book to other readers. The reason why is because it can teach you some thing that you don't know and a picture on how other people are living in their lives. The kind of reader that would mostly enjoy this book is a person who likes sports and a happy ending.

Well let me start with the characters the main character is Kisha and she was my favorite character. Because she was a lot like me in most parts in the story. Then there is Natonia she is Kisha's best friend they do go through fights but their always there for each other. There is also their track coach Darean he wishes for the team to go to the Olympics. I think this story had lots of meaning to it. There is some bad parts and there is some sad and happy parts. The book was mainly about a girl that her parents get into lots of fights and the dad is mostly slapping the mom. Also she thinks that she's not good at track and gets very scared that her parents are going to get a divorce. I think this book is man vs. himself because Kisha thinks that all the pressure is on herself to win the championship and she thinks that it is her fault that his dad shoot her mom on the leg.In the end it starts to get sad but then everything gets good again.

Marilyn Levy has given readers an inside look at realities of life for an adolescent female living in an urban environment. The fact that the story is based on acual events helps to make it more meaningful. The messages of hope throughout the story capture the heart, and anyone that has ever needed to hear someone say "You're a winner"does so in this book. Reading the powerful messages had me wiping tears throughout the book. After reading this book, I accepted a summer teaching position with an Upward Bound program. I knew this book would be one for the students to read. If I never make another good choice, the impact this book has had with these students will make up for that. They come in ready to read and discuss the book. The main characters are spoken of as if they know them personally. When I read aloud, they beg me not to stop. Run For Your Life is doing what I wanted it to .... engage readers with meaningful text.

This book does make you want to keep reading, and Kisha is an excellent strong female character, but the ending was just too sudden. How could the team have gone from losing big time at one small competition to setting records at nationals so fast? They just make that transition too quickly, it felt too rushed. Also, it seemed like their money-making plans to go to the Nationals worked better than any real bake sale I've ever seen. Even woth a lot of work, they sure got their plane tickets and nice track suits awfully fast. The main part that kept me interested was the subplot about Kisha's parents relationship, because I found too much of the main track plot too unrealistic, even if it was based on a true story. Darren saved that part- he was the best adult character in the whole, a role model, but not too good to be true.

The interesting change in ones life written by Marilyn Levi. An older lady that loves to write books on life of teenagers all over the world. She loves taking trips all over the world. She loves taking trips all over to interview teenager lifestyles and write great books like Run for Your Life.
This book has a few main characters. Natonia a teenage girl that doesn't live with her mom and doesn't have a lot to look at in life. She lives all around drugs and fighting. Kisha another teenage girl that has a very similar life style but lives with both of her parents but the dad in her life is into drugs which isn't doesn't help the situation. Ty a young boy that's Kisha's brother. He is scared of outside because of the people that are shown on the news and is scared something bad might happen to him. Derricks a great track coach in running on his team and winning the Olympics. Kisha's mom a very loving and caring mom that loves supporting her children, but has a husband that doesn't do a lot for the family with he gets laid off.
Kisha and Natonia are great friends and live in the ghetto. They don't have much to look forward to in life until a middle aged man asks them to join a track team. Kisha loved the idea, but Natonia wasn't to interested about it. Kisha starts up a team with her friends and they start practicing. Everyone gets along good until has to quit because she is pregnant. They finally get to where they compete. There first meet wasn't to good. There team didn't fin in and kasha didn't want to go to anymore meets. Kisha all of a sudden started to have problems with her dad and he shot Kisha's mom in the leg for supporting the track team. Kisha couldn't get over the fact that her dad shot her mom. She had no interest in track now and the Olympics were one day away. When she announced she wasn't going, Kisha's mom wanted Kisha to "Run for Her Life" it was her chance to make something of herself and to find out what happends you will have to read this book.
I like this book because every chapter was interesting and always kept me wondering. If you like sport books or books that tell about life of teenagers. This book would be great for you. One bad thing about this book is some chapters would have you wondering then the next chapter would talk about something else.

Kisha has lived all of her thirteen years in the projects of Oakland, California. It's not a good place to live, but the people who grow up there just seem to keep living there. Hardly anyone ever manages to get out and into a better situation. Kisha just sort of assumes that she and her little brother and her best friend and everyone else will be there forever.

Then one day Darren shows up. He is in his twenties and is the new director of the community center. He convinces Kisha and a handful of other girls to join the track team he's starting. At first no one is very enthusiastic. But before they realize, all of them are looking forward to their track practices every day. Part of the deal is staying off drugs, doing well in school and not getting pregnant, and all of the girls take these rules seriously.

It seems that things might really be looking up for the girls from the projects. But they can't escape from their reality. Something strange is going on with Kisha's best friend, who suddenly won't talk to her. And things are not smooth in her own family, where her mother has gotten a job over the protestations of her husband. Things are very tense and sometimes even violent.

The girls on the track team want to believe Darren when he says that running might be their ticket to a better life, but how will they survive their present life in order to get out?

I liked that this story was based on true events; it was neat that an uplifting story like this really happened. However, this story was often depressing. I couldn't help but feel sorry for the people living in the projects and I also couldn't help thinking that despite Darren's plans, most of them probably wouldn't escape from this life.

A Review by Tom

Growing up in the projects and having parents who constantly fight Kisha, and her friend Natonia are always looking for ways to keep themselves busy during the summer. That's why when the community center reopened they decided to join the track team. Even with all the problems in her life she stays determined and keeps the will to win.

I think the author did a great job showing how life for Kisha and the projects was like. I found it hard to connect with Kisha because we are so different, I've never lived in the projects and I don't have the problems at home like she does. The conflicts that arose in the story were realistic for someone of that age and situation. It made the story that much more enjoyable because it was based on a true story.

I recommend this book to anybody who thinks they could be able to compare their life with Kisha's. I think that if I was able to connect better with the character I would have enjoyed it much more.