Customer Reviews

Slot Machine

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This marvelously written book takes you straight into a not-so-perfect teenager's head. Elvin Bishop is fat, weak, indefensive and insecure. Just as Elvin gets out of school he learns that he is going back, sort of. He is going to a so-called "retreat", which is really just his new school. The camp is called "Twenty one nights with the knights". Elvin is always being picked on. He knows that the retreat is going to be terrible ever since the bus-ride to the camp when everyone starts picking on him and stealing his food. To Elvin, food is almost as precious as gold, so when they were stealing his food he felt miserable. To comfort himself he would look at the school's brochure, trying to image and pretend how much fun he would have there. His vision slowly fades away as he starts settling in. Almost immediately, everyone was picking on Elvin; his only defenses being his two best friends Mikie and Frankie. Out of those two his only real friend is Mikie because Mikie really understands Elvin. Frankie is his friend too but he isn't really a "real" friend, just someone who is nice to Elvin. Elvin feels that: "Frankie is just too perfect to be my friend".
The camp has a system of "slots", or places in sports. Elvin is just good for nothing, no sport seems to fit his personality, he tries football, soccer, baseball and finally when he thinks he found his place in wrestling, his hopes are turned down by the coaches when he is asked to leave because of other incoming students. Later when he finds a slot in art he meets new friends and finds out that strength doesn't always have to be physical.
Chris Lynch is a great author who takes you into the head of a 14 year old boy, revealing his thoughts and impressions. "Slot Machine" is mostly comedy and drama. If you are interested in a good, refreshing novel, then this is a book for you.

I read the book Slot Machine by Chris Lynch. It is an adventure/comedy book and is very entertaining and I never wanted to put down the book. I choose this book because when I looked at it it seemed interesting because of the title of the book. I loved the book because of the predicament that the main character was in. Also, there was kind of a diffrent story on the side which included one of the main characters two best friends. I would recomend this book to people from the 6th grade to the 10th grade. Chris Lynch has written other books including the Shadow Boxer and Iceman. Lynch has a masters degree from the writing program at Emerson College.
This book is about a boy named Elvin who is going to a new school. He is at a retreat where all the freshmen go to find what "slot", sport, they are in. Unfortunately Elvin can't find himself a slot. For a side story he has two best friends. One of his best friends Frankie was trying to fit in with the older and cooler kids. His other best friend Mike found his slot easily and is like there father, he kept encouraging Elvin to find a slot. In one part of the story Frankie trys to pursuade Mike and Elvin to come with him to a party with the older kids. Frank says "You guys want another chance tonight, the O's kind of think you two are wimps". After Frank said that I wonderd if Mike and Elvin were going to fold under peer pressure, but they did not. That is just on of the parts of this excellent book. I recomend if you are between the age groups I suggested that you definetely read this book.

The book that I read was Slot Machine by Chris Lynch. This book is about a boy named Elvin who is 14 years old. Elvin and his friends decide to go to this camp over the summer because they had nothing else to do. The camp was called 21 Nights with the Knights and it was for mainly overweight people. Once they got there they found out that they had to pick a slot. A slot meant that you would pick a sport and try to get better at it over the summer. Then Elvin found out that some of his teachers were there from school to help. The first slot that Elvin picked was football and the first day of practice he got hurt. After he was in the football slot, he got moved to wrestling and baseball slot. You will have to read the book to find out the ending.

One thing that I liked was when they were on the bus fighting over the cookies because I really like cookies. Another thing that I liked was when Elvin got hurt and met another friend. Then Elvin found out that you could only get three injury papers to see the nurse. The thing that I didn't like was when Elvin kept getting yelled at and moved to different slots.

I would recommend this book to people who like sports books and some conflict between the characters. This book is for boys who are in grades from seventh to tenth grade. Another similar author that I found to recommend would be Matt Christopher.

Chris Lynch packs a whallop in Slot Machine. Any young adult who has searched for his slot, his place to "fit in", will identify with Elvin Bishop. Readers will cry, moan, and eventually laugh with Elvin as he suffers through defeat, rejection, and then triumph. Lynch manages to sum up many readers' entire adolescence in three weeks of an action-packed, bully-infested, humiliation-filled summer camp. And yet our hero, Elvin Bishop, emerges stronger than he went in. He is secure in his knowledge of who he is, even as he watches his two best friends lose a bit of their perfection. Even though this tale is a bit tall, Lynch's writing contains realistic dialogue and character traits that young adults will identify with. Slot Machine is the epitomy of "coming of age" books, leaving readers a little more secure in the knowledge of who they might become.

The plot of the story is that some kid goes to camp and is bad at every sports and at the end he is in the very weird art group and did not change at all durring the book. A day in the life of some guy that sleeps all day would be more interesting than this. I BEG OF YOU DO NOT READ THIS BOOK IT HAS NO POINT. Everyone who writes reveiws are parents who love the book but the kid hates it. I am a kid and I know how the person who is reading it feels

This book is about a boy named Elvin who goes to a camp to get introduced to high school. He soon finds out that this camp is not to introduce him to high school but to slot him in a sport for one of the school teams. The only trouble is that Elvin doesn't fit into any sport at all. He goes through almost every slot until the counselors just give up on him. At the end Elvin finally finds a slot that suits him. The art slot. I would highly recomend this book because everybody can relate to not fitting in when you go to a camp or new school just like Elvin felt in this book.

(...)this book is a great fit for teens and the awards earnedare well deserved.

Elvin is just starting high school, but beforeschool starts the directors at his school send all the boys to the St. Paul's Seminary Retreat Center, so they can be "placed" in the appropriate "slot" for sports teams at their new school. Elvin doesn't fit into a slot, he knows this and tried to tell the directors that he is "unslottable". The directors want to help Elvin find his slot. A great book that will leave you laughing at Elvin's wise-cracking remarks, especially in the letters home to his mom. Elvin's story continues in _Extreme Elvin_. END

ISBN 0064471403 - Books that have gotten multiple awards are usually surrounded by such an aura of "You HAVE to like this book!" that I find my expectations too high. Slot Machine seemed to be one of those - A Best Book for Young Adults, Young Adult Choices for 1997, Winner of a 1995 Bulletin Blue Ribbon, and A Recommended Book for Reluctant Young Adult Readers... that's a lot to live up to! To my surprise, it does!

Elvin and his friends go to a summer retreat known as Twenty-One Nights with the Knights. Elvin's got a negative outlook from the start and things immediately live down to that perspective. Not, in any way, athletic, Elvin struggles as he is pushed to fit into a "slot". Everyone, they tell him, has a slot - and all of those slots are athletic. After proving that he's definitely not an athlete, and making an unpleasant discovery about the "in" crowd guys, he reaches bottom. And he finds that he likes it there! He's not alone, and it's clearly his "slot".

I can see why Slot Machine would get a Reluctant Reader award - Elvin might be more of a misfit than the reader, but almost every young adult FEELS like a misfit at some time! He's a funny character, with a bit of the smart-aleck. Lynch does a really nice job with all his characters, leaving me wishing for a peek at next year's Twenty-One Nights with the Knights.

- AnnaLovesBooks

This is a great book for all readers. Whether you're 13 or 19 you will love this book. Its even suitable for all sport lovers! No matter what sport you play or watch, this book is for you. And if sport books aren't for you, then this book is still a real keeper. Read as an out-of-shape 14 year-old gets beat up in all the sports. Also, read as he faces peer pressure and some severe decisions, but mixed in with all of this is some real humor. I recommend this book to all teenagers and sport lovers. Be sure to read the sequel "Extreme Elvin". Enjoy!

this book was fairly decent book. it was about sports with a little bit of comedy. a guy trys to play all different kinds of sports and gets thrown around and made fun of. he tries hard cause he wants to be like his friends. he is always getting hurt.
there was some bad things about the book i didnt like. for one its to long. its also not as funny as it sounds like it would be. it wasn't a bad book though. it was confusing how one day he was doing one sport and all of a sudden the next day he was doing another. I would recommend this book to likes sports and a little bit of comedy.