Being a pro wrestler takes talent, guts, and hard work—can Kyle make it to the pros and live the life he wants?
Kyle Bailey is a normal high school senior with a secret ambition: to be a wrestling superstar with the WWE. When he hears about a wrestling class at the local gym, he knows this may be his one shot at making his dream come true. The only problem is that no one in his life understands his love of wrestling, so he can’t tell anyone what he’s doing—especially not his grandmother, who has raised him since he was a kid.
As Kyle’s talent becomes increasingly apparent, his instructor takes notice and invites him to wrestle in an upcoming professional match. With his newfound success—and his beautiful wrestler girlfriend—Kyle feels like he’s finally exactly where he belongs.
But when his grandmother’s health takes a turn for the worse, Kyle is torn between needing to care for her and wanting to follow his dreams. He isn’t ready to give up on being a pro wrestler, but he can’t abandon the woman who has taken care of him his entire life.
Headlock is a heartwarming novel about the strength it takes to let go of what you love and the courage it takes to ask for help.
Joyce Sweeney is the author of fourteen books for young adults. Her novel Center Line won the first-annual Delacorte Press Prize for a First Young Adult Novel. Many of Sweeney’s works have appeared on the American Library Association’s Best Books for Young Adults list. Her novel Shadow won the Nevada Young Readers’ Award in 1997, and Players was chosen by Booklist as a Top 10 Sports Book for Youth and by Working Mother magazine as a Top Ten for Tweens. Headlock won a silver medal in the 2006 Florida Book Awards and was chosen by the American Library Association as a Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers. Sweeney also writes short stories and poetry and conducts ongoing workshops in creative writing, which have so far produced forty published authors. She lives in Coral Springs, Florida, with her husband, Jay, and cat, Nitro.