Read Aloud the Text Content

This audio was created by Woord's Text to Speech service by content creators from all around the world.

Text Content or SSML code:

After a conversation with his father, Arnold decides to try out for basketball. With a little encouragement from the Coach, he makes the team. During the first basketball match against his old school, Arnold is booed, pelted with a quarter, and the crowd turns their back on him. Rowdy then knocks him in the head and Arnold falls unconscious. In the rematch, though, Arnold's team wins, and he feels a bit guilty about this—kind of like he has been playing on the side of Goliath instead of David. During the last half of the book, Arnold undergoes a series of losses: first his grandmother is hit by a drunk driver, then his dad's best friend Eugene is shot in the face at a 7-11. These are all alcohol-related accidents... as is the death of his sister Mary, who dies in a trailer fire. The only way Arnold can cope with all of the pain is by learning to embrace his joy—which he does by making lists.