The Big Game

Danny Owen is poised to take the junior high football team by storm as a 7th grader this year.  He's going to be a starter this year, catch the eye of the high school coach, and play for the high school team as an 8th grader.  He's got it all planned out.  He's going to follow in his dad's footsteps and make it to the NFL.  Everyone agrees he has a special talent.

Then his dad dies while helping Danny train during the summer.  His world is shaken, and neither he nor his mom is dealing with it well.  Danny often feels overwhelming anger for what seems like no reason.

To make matters worse, his new English teacher just doesn't get it.  Danny is a football player, a good football player.  His grades in English don't really matter as long as he passes.  Danny's not good at reading.  He is good at football.  That's his future, but Ms. Wright has figured out the truth.  Danny can't read, and she doesn't care about football, so she isn't going to just pass him.

When an injury at practice has Danny on the sidelines, his mother sees it as a wake-up call.  Maybe they've been wrong to let Danny coat through life on his athletic ability.  As Danny struggles to make up for the skills he missed over the years in the classroom, he sees his chances of playing in the big game slipping away as his replacement keeps getting better.

So...Tim Green is great, and I can't say enough about what a great leader he is in getting kids to read; however, it's also not a secret that I'm not a sports person.  It will be no surprise then that it is difficult for me to enjoy a sports genre book like this.  I have tolerated other sportsbooks ok, but I just don't like the main character.  Maybe it's because I grew up in Texas, and my entire educational career has been here, so I've met plenty of kids who think football is life and they are God's gift to the world as 7th graders.  He does make some emotional progress by the last chapter, but he is still an aggressive, entitled jerk who doesn't even love football when he isn't in the starring role.  I give it two stars instead of one because everyone eventually realizes Danny should actually know how to read by the end, and I know literacy is an important message for the author.  I also know plenty of kids will enjoy this book, especially those who love football.