Run for Your Life

By Marilyn Levy

Book Overview

Based on the true story of a girls' track team that was started to provide an alternative to street life in one of the toughest housing projects in Oakland, California. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0698116089
• ISBN13: 9780698116085
• Release Date: October 1997
• Publisher: Puffin
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 0.6" x 4.2"
• Age Range: 8 years and up
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

Run For Your Life By Reshanda Blue

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.

Teen issues

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.

The Fabulous Book

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.

Martina's review

I liked this book because if you like track and sports then you'll really enjoy this book. My favorite part was when she wrote Darren's name in the dirt and when Natonia came she tried to rub it out with her shoe and it wouldn't come out. A lot of girls would really like this book.

I cried.

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.