Robert Lipsyte is part of what has been recognized as a revolution in young adult literature. His first novel, The Contender, maintains a place in the young adult canon alongside S. E. Hinton's groundbreaking The Outsiders and Paul Zindel's The Pigman. Lipsyte, a journalist who covered sports for the New York Times from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, transformed the sports novel from its action-oriented model with predictable plot and one-dimensional characters into "a realistic, coming-of-age story with sports serving as a metaphor for the real action in the novel: coping with life," according to Jack Forman writing in St. James Guide to Young Adult Writers. Lipsyte's The Contender started a trend in sports books for younger readers that focuses on characters who experience a transformation through a combination of hard work and adherence to ethics. His first novel continues to be popular with young readers...