The Challenge

Summary: This short story is about an overconfident Chicano boy who tries to win the heart of the new girl at school by challenging her to a racquetball game. However, Jose has never played racquetball in his life and unfortunately for him, Estela is an accomplished player. Needless to say, instead of impressing Estela, Jose makes a fool of himself. In this short story the reader will laugh at the lengths Jose takes to appear macho and sweep the new girl off her feet.

CLD Students: This short story is excellent for adolescent readers, especially boys, as they laugh at the mistakes that Jose makes in trying to win over Estela. The content is engaging and all students will be able to relate to the emotions of the characters, creating many text to self and text to world connections. Gary Soto strategically uses Spanish in the story to make it more engaging and humorous for Latino CLD students. In the short story there are excellent illustrations that draw the reader in and help to stimulate vocabulary development.

Related Materials/Resources:

https://www.eduplace.com/kids/tnc/gr6/gr6_th3_sel3.html

Vocabulary game and author info

http://www.powershow.com/view2b/406713-ODllN/The_Challenge_by_Gary_Soto_powerpoint_ppt_presentation

Vocabulary powerpoint

http://www.byrdseed.com/do-more-with-story-structure/

Story Structure

Gary Soto Author Information:

http://www.garysoto.com/bio.html

http://www.notablebiographies.com/news/Sh-Z/Soto-Gary.html

http://www.umich.edu/~ac213/student_projects08/latlit/soto.html

Available Formats and Languages: Spanish, English, hardcover, paperback, also available in selected textbooks

Book: "Taking Sides" by Gary Soto

Age Range: 6-8th grade

ISBN: 978-0-15-284076-1