Imitate the Tiger

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

A high school football player struggles with alcohol dependency and ends up at a rehab school for teenagers. Ages 12-up. (Aug.) r

Children's Literature - Rebecca Joseph

In Cheripko's first young adult novel, we meet Chris Serbo who is describing events that led to his being placed in a rehabilitation program for alcoholics. A high school senior, Chris loves to play football more than anything else, but even the camaraderie of his football team and a championship season cannot compensate for his internal emptiness. Alcohol becomes Chris' way of trying to forget his unhappiness. As Chris' life deteriorates, we see his defensiveness as people try to help him. Cheripko brings his experience as a teacher of at-risk children into this novel, which shows no mercy for Chris and in doing so creates a fascinating portrayal. The story provides a unique view into the life of a young man in crisis. ABA Pick of the Lists.

School Library Journal

Gr 8 UpChris Serbo, a senior, is an outside linebacker for the Valley View High School Dragons. He is also an alcoholic. His first-person story is revealed in two ways. Before each chapter, a brief italicized account tells what's going on in the present as Chris grapples with the Twelve Steps and, after football season is over, tries to finish high school at a rehabilitation facility that he's been forced to enter. In the main body of the novel, the troubled teen recounts his championship season with the Dragons, along with the downward spiral his personal life took due to his drinking. Cheripko portrays a young man whose mother died when he was five and whose absentee, career-military father is a drunk. Chris's two main pleasures, football and partying, are intimately detailed in the story. While the signs of dependency are all around himfalling grades, lies, losing friendsChris remains firmly in a state of denial. Only toward the very end of the book does he show that he might be ready to face up to his problems. While the locker-room lingo and dialogue are presented in a mild manner, the author doesn't hold back in describing Chris's stupefying behavior during his weekend binges. A frank account of an at-risk teen fighting for his life.Tom S. Hurlburt, La Crosse Public Library, WI

Kirkus Reviews

In Cheripko's first novel, a high school senior stubbornly refuses to acknowledge that he's an alcoholic. All the signs are there: Christopher Serbo's grades are plunging, his girlfriend has called it quits, and home life with his aunt is a series of battles and deceptions. He's constantly angry and depressed, feeling out of control and unable to change. Only on the football field does Christopher find relief, and even there, as his team marches through its first undefeated season, the new coach presses him relentlessly. Christopher describes his episodes of drunkenness with brutal precision, becoming an embarrassing, pathetic figure. When his drinking becomes an open secret, his coach and a concerned teacher work out a deal that allows Christopher to finish the season and report immediately to a full-time rehabilitation program.

Cheripko gives readers a glimpse of the new school's tough love approach that enables Christopher to admit that he has a problem, embark on a 12-step program, and realize that he does have the courage to help himself. If the plotting is a bit shaky—Christopher heals from a vicious beating with miraculous speed, and a deathbed scene with Aunt Catherine melodramatically ties up a loose end—Christopher's behavior, and the reasons for it, are laid out clearly enough, and the point that rules unjustly bend sometimes for a successful athlete is well taken.