Title: Bareknuckle Series
Author: various
Publisher: Darby Creek, 2014
Pages: varies
Source: VOYA
Compensation: None
Bareknuckle is an
exciting new hi/lo series perfect for reluctant reader boys. Each book tells a
different story set at an underground boxing club in the 1870s. Although boys
will be most interested in the very violent fighting, each book also throws in
some history and moral lessons. Descriptions of the fights are very visual and
auditory and suck in readers who love picturing loud cracks as bare knuckles
hit broken noses. Squeamish readers might not be as thrilled, but most boys
will be drawn to the fighting sections. Although the series is aimed at
reluctant readers, it is exciting enough to interest voracious readers as well.
In Nathan Sack’s The Big Fix readers
are introduced to underground boxing when young journalist George Choogart
travels to New York to uncover corruption in a post-Tammany city. The Woodrat
is established as a popular fighting club. Fighter’s
Alley by Heather Duffy Stone tells the story of a young boy determined to
enter a high-stakes boxing tournament and try to keep it a secret from his
father who is running for mayor. Slavery and immigration are backstories in
Gabriel Goodman’s Lightning’s Run.
Jewish immigrant Hiram and former slave Lightning join forces at the Woodrat to
fight against bullies, both big and small. The Bareknuckle series would be a worthy addition to middle school
libraries and libraries serving the tween (4th-6th
grades) population.
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