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    Grind
    Grind
    Grind
    Ebook75 pages46 minutes

    Grind

    By Eric Walters

    3.5/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Philip lives for skateboarding. School is merely the break between trying to land a difficult jump and outrunning the security guards. When he and his best friend Wally meet a professional skateboarder who videotapes himself for his website, Philip thinks they can do it too—and make money at the same time. When they start getting hits on their website—and making money—they start to feel the pressure to do more and more dangerous stunts.

    Also available in Spanish or French.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOrca Book Publishers
    Release dateSep 1, 2004
    ISBN9781554696314
    Grind
    Author

    Eric Walters

    Eric Walters is a Member of the Order of Canada and the author of over 125 books that have collectively won more than 100 awards including the Governor General’s Literary Award for The King of Jam Sandwiches. A former teacher, Eric began writing as a way to get his fifth-grade students interested in reading and writing. Eric is a tireless presenter, speaking to over 100,000 students per year in schools across the country. He lives in Guelph, Ontario.

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    Reviews for Grind

    3.5/5

    7 ratings2 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Eric Walters is an awesome author! This book is halarious.
    • 4/5
      This e-book version offered through Tumblereadables provides a welcome alternative format to the traditional Orca Soundings chapter books. As an e-book, each chapter is broken up into small section over 5-10 pages, making the task of reading a novel much less daunting and giving the reader the immediate satisfaction of accomplishment. No audio track is provided, but there are many useful features such as a table of contents for easy access, bookmarking capability, and additional options to customize the text according to font, size, colour, and spacing. Identified as a high interest / low level vocabulary novel, the story follows a pattern of short dialogues between the characters, with limited narrative - which reads exceptionally well in the e-book format. Students will connect with the skateboard lingo such as grind, fakie, 360s, and descriptions of various skateboarding manoeuvres, but more savvy readers may find some of the scenerios and the conclusion a little contrived. Home access available with a public library card or school library subscription.

    Book preview

    Grind - Eric Walters

    home!

    Chapter One

    The bell rang, marking the end of both the school day and my nap. I reached down and grabbed my backpack, stuffed in my notebook and got out of my seat. Despite the slow start, I was still the first person through the door. That was the fastest either my mind or my body had moved all day.

    The door closed behind me, cutting off the teacher yelling out his reminder about the test tomorrow. Didn’t he understand that the school day was over? He should stop talking because I’d stopped listening. I knew there was a test and I’d definitely study for it. My plans were to cut first class and get ready for the test. For now, though, I was free.

    I worked my way down the hall, weaving in and out of the crush of kids moving in the other direction. I didn’t know most of them, but what I did know was that we all wanted the same thing—to get out of the building. I reached my locker, opened it up and threw in the backpack. There was nothing in there that I was going to need tonight. The only thing I needed was in the bottom of my locker and —

    Hey, Phil!

    I turned around. How’s it going, Wally?

    School’s over, so it must be good. What do you want to do?

    "I figured I’d go straight home. I have some chores to do around the house. Then I’ll finish all my homework and do some extra math, just so I can be better prepared. Then I’ll read a little bit from the Bible before I turn in for the night because early to bed, early to rise makes you healthy, wealthy and wise."

    Seriously, Wally asked.

    Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer. What do you think I’m going to do? I reached down into my locker and grabbed my skateboard.

    I knew we were going skating, Wally said, his board tucked under his arm. "I just wanted to know where."

    I was thinking behind the Super Save.

    That’s good for me. I don’t imagine Lisa will be coming.

    I turned around, slammed the locker closed and clicked on the lock. What do you think?

    Still a little sensitive, huh?

    Not sensitive. Just tired of people asking me. You want to skate or what? I demanded.

    Wally took his board out from under his arm and held it out. I’m not carrying this just to look cool.

    That’s good, because that whole cool thing just isn’t working for you, I joked.

    The crowd was already starting to thin out. That meant some people had escaped before me. I didn’t like that. We hurried down the corridor. I thought about how much faster we could move if we just put down the boards and jumped on. Of course, that would have meant a suspension.

    Outside the school, the parking lot was a crush of cars, backing out of spots, bumping along the rows, lined up ready to leave. Kids snaked between the cars. We worked our way through the traffic. Again, skating would have been faster, but the same rules applied in the parking lot—get caught skating and you got suspended. It felt like there were more rules and punishments applied to skateboarding than there were to selling drugs.

    We finally reached the edge of the parking lot. Just a few feet short of school property I put down my board, jumped on and pumped my way to freedom.

    The path was smooth, sloping down, leading to a tunnel that went under the main road. There were clumps of people along the path ahead of us. I liked that. People became pylons to skate around. I pumped harder, picking up more speed. I zipped in and out, avoiding people, but trying to just avoid them.

    I bent down low, allowing the hill to work for me, picking up speed. Just at the bottom of the hill there was a set of stairs — twelve of them. The stairs got closer and closer. I flew off the top, getting great air, grabbing the board with one hand, flying, hitting the pavement with a bump and then flying forward off the board and face planting in the grass and gravel at the side of the path.

    I heard the screams and laughs from behind me — people on the path. I picked myself up.

    You okay? Wally asked. Board in hand, he’d run down the stairs.

    I spit out bits of grass and grit. I’m good.

    You didn’t hurt your wrist? he asked.

    "I made sure I

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