Title: Building Champions: Changing Disruptive, Delinquent Teens’ Attitudes and Behaviors to Become Real-Life Champions
Author: John Stephenson
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 978-1532066306
Genre: Fiction / Cultural Heritage
Pages: 346
Reviewed by: Aaron Washington

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The plot of Building Champions: Changing Disruptive, Delinquent Teens’ Attitudes and Behaviors to Become Real-Life Champions is set in an industrial township on the East Coast of Northern Australia. The focus is on teenage boys, how they interact with each other, how they hold conversations and the challenges life throws at them. We meet Rick Scott, popularly known as Rocky by the local boys. Rocky was a coach who was loved by everyone as he had an magnetic personality and a caring heart. A generally quiet man, Rocky revealed very little about himself. One could not tell if he had something bothering him as he knew how to mask his emotions. I enjoyed how the character is developed from the start of the book. The reader quickly identifies with Rocky’s values, as all he does is for the betterment of his community.

Rocky seems to be enjoying his life up until the time he is infected with a serious disease. It was such a sad moment as he got the illness during the most important week of the year. A visit to the doctor revealed he had a bad case of a type of bacterial infection. The sickness becomes serious and drags him down throughout the year. Being the kind-hearted person that he was, Rocky made it his mission to coach and mentor the young boys in his neighborhood. There are so many lessons one can take from Rocky. Being the main character, the reader sees why the author John Stephenson created Rocky as a hero of some sort. I admired his resilience and positive attitude of not giving up. Even after leaving his sales job, Rocky did not sit at home to feel pity for himself. He took up another job as a taxi driver.

Building Champions is a great coming to age fiction book as it centers the main stories on what happens in the society. Young people often succumb to drugs and ill vices even before attaining their goals in life. With a protagonist such as Rocky, we see how society needs key figures to help the youth in their everyday struggles. With people like Rocky, the youth can gain much more than what they are taught at home. Rocky was open with the boys he coached and gave them a listening ear.

I like how understanding Rocky was and how he made the environment comfortable for all. In a unique way, the author wrote about the importance of having mentors. Boys need male figures to look up to and guide them as they grow up. Rocky was the male mentor needed by every boy in the community. The mood in the book is generally jovial. One feels the impact Rocky had on the kids. The end of the book is great but rather sudden. I was happy when Tony, Aiden, Pieter, and other friends acknowledged the work Rocky had been doing and even regretted being unkind to him earlier on. Readers will absolutely love this book if you enjoy reading chill stories that have little drama but numerous life lessons. I especially liked the author John Stephenson’s modest narration and exemplary writing