Gilbert Sanchez is an eleven-year-old Hispanic boy living in a typical urban neighborhood with his middle-class family. He is in fifth grade and attends elementary school. Gilbert's older cousin, Raymundo, lives in the neighborhood and attends the same elementary school. After watching the movie The Karate Kid, Gilbert and Raymundo convince themselves that they are karate fighters. At school Gilbert takes his new-found confidence to heart and refuses to let an intimidating bully cut in line in front of him. The standoff results in an after-school fight which Gilbert loses badly. After much introspection, Gilbert decides that his failure stems from not having an instructor. He convinces his mother to enroll him in karate lessons and spends six months training at a lackluster studio with a disinterested instructor.
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