The World of Illusion

<p>Welcome to <I>The World of Illusion</I>-This is the world that many people including the characters in this collection of short stories think is real when it is actually a world they create themselves. <p>In Summer Jobs The Agony and the Ecstasy a boy who believes the summer is traditionally for fun realizes the hard way that sometimes this assumption is not necessarily true.<p>Steve believes the world-the restricting world he has created for himself-will come to an end after he delivers a mediocre oral report in Freedom.<p>Sammy is a 9-year old boy in Cotton Candy Circus who is just beginning to learn an illusion he will later create for himself when he is older.<p>Sammy now a high school student in The Bet $$$$ lives in a world where he is popular when in reality he is actually offensive.<p>In Shake-Speared Freddie the football player thinks he will lose his reputation and whatever chance he has of gaining friends if he is cast in a Shakespearian play. Freddie again faces the thought of losing everything in The Mistake when he fumbles the ball in a football game.<p>Throughout <I>The World of Illusion</I> author J. F. Mattaino explores the consequences of the shortsightedness and shortcomings of these very ordinary characters.