Peter Richmond (1)

When your dad's too wrapped up in himself and your mom skipped out to save heathens in Central America when you were little, that doesn't leave you much in the way of parental support or communication. That's the situation high school junior, Jack finds himself in as the new school year approaches. Dad has pushed him to get into a prestigious private school in New Hampshire, remote and far from the familiarity of New York City. Rather than fight what he sees as a losing battle, Jack show more reluctantly agrees.
Oakhurst seems creepy at first look, but Jack likes his roommate and has an instant attraction to Caroline, a pretty, but shy flute player. His passion is playing the piano and one of the reasons his father pushed him to come here is the concert featuring a piano competition in front of alumni and this year possibly TV cameras that happens just before the Thanksgiving break. After signing up for piano tutoring, Jack acts on an impulse and signs up to play football. It's a life-changing decision. True, back in New York, he was pretty good at catching passes in pick-up games, but he's never experienced anything like the intensity his new teammates exude as practices progress.
There's an urgency to win the prep league championship and for some of the players, that means using whatever substance will get them to peak performance. Jack must tread a fine line in order to keep his own values without angering the more rabid team members. Add in a passing interest by the quarterback's girlfriend, a growing 'something' with Caroline, his gradual realization that not only is football fun, but it's more important to him than he ever imagined, coupled with a personal crisis about the piano competition and you have a story that's tight and very well crafted. This is a book that teens who love sports, who have parental issues, who have struggled with the whole performance enhancement dilemma, or who like music can enjoy a lot. It's certainly worthy of being added to both school and public library collections. show less

POV: 1st Person
Genre: Autobiographical, Sports
I started reading this book a while a go and just now got to finishing it. It was a very interesting and informative, albeit long and overly detailed read. The book focuses on the 1958 NFL championship game. The look into the players' lives and football culture as whole enlightens you to a world of football so different than today's. However, I felt that the book could have been condensed. There is almost a play by play breakdown of each quarter show more and while certain plays effected and changed the course of the game, I felt the complete retelling was unnecessary. show less

Quit early on this. Boring to read, no literary style. Just because David Halberstam wanted to write this one, Gifford ought to have thought twice. Mark Bowden's The Best Game Ever is far superior to this book.

Jack Lefferts, after urging from his father, applies and gets accepted to the elite Oakhurst Hall for his high-school junior year. He decides to attend, more to get away from his domineering father than his interest in the school. More interested in music than in athletics, he tries out for the football team, having once played a pickup game and easily caught a few passes. He is placed on Junior Varsity, but after the coaches see his amazing receiving ability, he is moved up to Varsity, show more where he again proves himself. However, he is a lightweight at approximately 140 pounds. Several of the teams they will play have big bruisers and a teammate suggests steroids to bulk up. He resists the urge, but the pressure mounts. While practicing football and lifting weights, he must also juggle a piano solo for the winter concert, practicing in a makeshift garage band and the advances of the quarterback’s girlfriend while trying to cultivate his own romance.
Teen fiction about steroid use is not uncommon and this book adds nothing new to the topic. The writing is rudimentary and cliché-ridden, containing such words/phrases as “weirdsmobile”, “scary intense” or “high-priced grape” to describe wine. The author even resorts to quoting a Katherine Hepburn film. The characters are stereotypes with no dimension and Lefferts is too good to be true. The football action is unexciting. Richmond, a New York Times best selling non-fiction author who has taught high school English, appears to be writing for the stereotypical ‘dumb jock’. show less