THE BRAVE

Alfred Brooks, hero of The Contender (1967), reappears as a police sergeant who rescues a young Native American boxer from drug pushers. Sonny Bear, 17, steps off the bus in N.Y.C., accepts a job with a hustler (``Stick''), and is immediately busted for possession. Sonny has talent, but he's hot-tempered and undisciplined; he's nearly killed in the correctional facility before Brooks springs him and sends him to Donatelli's Gym, the place in Harlem where world champions, and Brooks himself, once trained. Characters here may sneer at Rocky and The Karate Kid, but the story has elements of both. Sonny's training begins on the reservation, where it's supplied by old Jake Stump, member of a secret society (the ``Running Braves''); after a brief course of instruction at Donatelli's, the youth enters a citywide amateur competition and rips his way to the finals. His triumph is followed by a double blow: Brooks is shot and paralyzed (in a dramatic climax, Sonny tracks down the suspect—Stick); and Sonny is stripped of his amateur status when it comes out that he was paid for some previous bouts. A gritty tale of a young man who learns to replace his anger with pride. Well-written boxing action, too. (Fiction. 12-15)