Break Away By Chad Arthur

This is my review for Break Away by Chad Arthur. From the back of the book. Growing up on the mean city streets, Trey Carter learned the law of natural selection very well. He realized that to survive, He had to strike first and strike hard. That approach earned him the respect of his friends and enemies alike, until the day a fight went to far and his hardcore mentality landed him in jail.  With a drug -addicted mother and a father he has never met, his only chance for release from the juvenile detention center is to move to rural WV and live with his estranged grandfather, the very man he blames for every problem in his life. In the novel Break Away, Chad Arthur takes the reader every step of the journey with Trey Carter as he fights his own resentment and tries to outrun the demons of his past in search of a better life...Break Away is a realistic story of redemption and loyalty that readers of all ages will enjoy. Cheer Trey one moment and scream at him in frustration the next as he tries to adjust to life away from the big city and discover what it really means to be a family.. 
                                                                                 My take on this story is that Trey Carter really never had a chance growing up. Growing up in the projects of Philadelphia he believes that his only way out and to a better life is thru Basketball.  He makes a terrible mistake that lands him in juvie hall. Once in juvie we get a real glimpse of Trey . He has always fought for everything he has ever had because he couldn't count on his mom, and he really had no one else to count on so he did whatever he had to do to survive, and in the process he hardened his heart, but deep inside he knew he could be so much more than just another kid from the projects. With the help of a counselor that locates his grandfather he realizes  his only way out of juvie is to go live in WV with that grandfather a man whom Trey hates, even though Trey  has never met Jacob, his grandfather,  he blames him for kicking his mom out when she became pregnant with him . Once Trey moves to WV he meets several people including Alex Nuxal who becomes the only true friend Trey really ever had. In the several twists and turns that this book takes the resounding message is that to forgive doesn't free the person that is forgiven but that it frees the person that forgives. When I picked up this book I thought uh oh a book about basketball, something I know next to nothing about,but  once you start reading it you realize it is about so much more. Even though this book is geared toward young adults I think readers of any age will be uplifted by this story. I read this book in a couple of hours I really just couldn't put it down. 
 Thanks to my public library for having a copy of this book for me to read.