Football is the Main Focus

Knights of the Hill Country (2006)
Tharp, Tim
Fiction
9/10

Warning: there is some mild swearing in this book but no F-Bombs. There is also a little violence.

The book starts in the middle of a football game where it is a close call to wrecking their fifth undefeated season. This book tells how one football player progresses through his life to find himself. The main character of the story is Hampton Green a middle linebacker of the Kennisaw Knights in Oklahoma. He is also the star and captain of the defense. His lives on the field and off are two different t stories. On the field he is a cool and confident person, and off the field his life is a wreck. His dad walked out on him and his mom, his mom barely even notices him with all of her boyfriends that she gets every week, and he is just not a confident kid. He doesn’t do well in school as much as he does well in football. If I put it in football terms he would have been the kid that started left bench (which isn’t really a position). The rest of Kennisaw have an obsession of football so much that you might think that they worshipped that more than God. The football team of Kennisaw is not just starting out an undefeated season, no; they are trying to get their fifth in a row. And this pressure of the event is very hard on Hampton. But if Hampton and his team are able to succeed they will be legends and this book will go on through the eyes of Hampton and he fights his struggles and decides what he will want to do with his life.

The Theme that was given in this book is mainly self-discovery. He is trying to find himself in everything that he does and make sure that it is the path that he wants to take. He is trying to find the right girl to date; he also tries to find out what he is besides a great football player.

This book was made in the accent of someone that would live in Oklahoma would talk like. It has words like hisself in the book to make it extra special. In some ways it made the book just a little more interesting. He wrote this book also as the eyes and ears of the main character Hampton Green (which would be classified as a first person.) This really helps you to get into the book as his struggles are against him.

I recommend that this book is to be read by kids 12 and up as long as they are ok with mild swearing. If you are greatly offended by that then you should not read this book. I would also recommend this book to anyone that deals with football or that just loves football. It is a great story that shows the struggles of a young man and that would help them feel better. So mostly I would fit this book to someone that is male and loves football but it could also be read by females too. I really liked it because it was a football book and I could relate to that. I also liked how it went through and had his life. But it was mostly the football that got me in this book.

“JEALOUSY, RAGE, AND tenderness are wrapped around the story’s core theme of self-discovery. . . . This intriguing work demands an audience.”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred

“The teen’s voice comes in loud and clear, revealing a sensitive, likeable character. . . . Readers will root as much for his team as for Hampton to be true to himself. The dynamic football scenes will draw readers who enjoyed H. G. Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights.”—School Library Journal

Others Will Seem Bland

The Kite Runner (2005)
Hosseini, Khaled
Historical Fiction
4/5
Count as 2 Books
Warning: Graphic Scenes (Rape)


In this story Amir, the main character, recalls an event that happened when he was a child on Afghanistan. He says that it makes him who he is, the man today. Before the event he gives a back story of living o a nice home in Afghanistan. He lives with his father, Baba, and his two servants, Ali and his son, Hassan, who are Hazaras, an ethnic minority. The king is overthrown and things begin to change. One day Amir and Hassan are playing and these three boys come up and assault Walt and Kamel. Assef threatens Amir for playing with Hazara; Hassan protects him with a sling shot, to stop Assef. The story goes on to a kite fighting tournament, where the boys take kite strings and cover them with glass to see who can cut down each other first. And when the other kite falls the other guys go and retrieve it, this is called Kite Running. Hassan is a kite runner for Amir. So when Amir won Hassan went and chased after it. After a while Amir starts to look for him and finds him in an alley surrounded by Assef, Wali, and Kamal. As Amir watches Hassan gets beaten up and raped by Assef. Amir wants to help but the approval of his father and getting the losing kite overpowers him and he steps back and waits. After he pretends like he didn’t see anything. Amir starts to feel really guilty and he wants Hassan to leave so he put valuables under Hassan’s bed and accuses him of stealing. When Hassan admits to it Baba, Amir’s father, forgives Hassan. Shortly after Hassan and his dad leave from the house. And then the story goes on from there about how Amir tries to repay Hassan, for not helping him in the time that he probably needed him the most.
The main theme in this book is redemption. First, it is of his father but then after the event he tries to redeem himself to Hassan. The main portion of the book is about the redemption to Hassan, although it also shows themes of love, honor, guilt, and fear in the novel also. Love is trying to be found through Amir and his Father, honor is also with him and his father, guilt is from Amir not helping Hassan, and fear is from Amir  in his days.
In the book it is basically a journal of Amir telling about the journey of the redemption to Hassan. So therefore the writing is in first person, having Amir telling it. It is a easier read then normal books so that is helpful to be understood in the book. It is very good he really helps you feel like you are there with him.
I think the intended audience is about the age 17 and up, but if you are more mature you can probably handle the reading. It is just that there are rape scenes it in so it isn’t appropriate for younger audiences, but it would be good to read as an adult. It isn't hard to read you can understand what he is talking about when you are reading so the level of reading isn't bad.
I would recommend this book even though it is kind of graphic. I would just have to make sure that they knew that before hand that it is graphic. And to make sure that they would be fine with that. It is a really good book. It also shows you what it would be like in Afghanistan and how it would be to live there. "It is so powerful that for a long time everything I read seemed bland." (Isabel Allende) "This is one of those unforgettable stories that stays with you for years. All the great themes of literature and of life are the fabric of this Extraordinary novel: love, honor, guilt, fear, redemption." (Isabel Allende) "A moving portrait of modern Afghanistan." (Entertainment Weekly)

The Book That Just Might Change Your Life

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens (1998)
Covey, Sean
Non-Fiction
9/10


The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens is an “Ultimate teenage success guide.” This basically tells you how to be a successful teenager and a person throughout your life. It goes through each habit and tells you examples of what others have done either good or bad and how you can learn from that, how they should have or shouldn’t have handled the situations in the book according to the books teachings. This book shows you all the techniques that you can use in your life to be successful and how to be a better person. It also shows how you can do these techniques.
I think the main theme in this book is to work to the end. My meaning of that statement is to keep going forward and don’t stop until you get what you want. But he also basically tells you the right choice will put you in the right place, and if you don’t make a good choice you need to get out of that and make a good decision to put you back on path.
This book is written in first person as if he was sitting with you and talking to you. He has a very humorous style of writing to keep you interested as he feeds you this knowledge that will help you do better. The author, Sean Covey, wrote it so it can be an alternative to his dad’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and will still be interesting to people in their teenage years. It also helps you think am I doing this in my life, what can I apply this to in my life, and stuff like that.
I think that the intended audience is teenagers (hence the name) but I also feel that it can be read by adults that don’t want this book that will bore you to death. So it can be for all ages it would help you in your adult life if you just apply them right to your life. But I would not recommend this to anyone under the age of 13. I don’t think that they would be able to understand it and it might be a little to complex for them. Going back to talking about adults reading this it does have examples that probably wouldn’t apply to them since they don’t really have those problems anymore. But it might still be nice to read.
I would highly recommend this to all teenagers that haven’t read it yet because it would help them in there day to day lives. I just picked it up to see how it was and I liked it. And for adults it would still be good to read it is just not really intended as much for them. “An intensive training program for youth to grow and become winners in the competition of life.” (Kristi Yamaguchi, U.S. Olympic Figure Skating Gold Medalist) “This book is a touchdown.” (Steve Young, Quarterback, San Francisco 49ers) “This book has many positive, inspirational, and motivational strategies to help teenagers live up to their potential.” (Dr. Laura C. Schlessinger, author of Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess up Their Lives)

Imagination: My New Fear

Pendragon: The Reality Bug (2003)
MacHale, D.J.
Science Fiction
9/10

Warning: There is Mild language, but no F-bombs

This is the fourth book in the series of the books PENDRAGON it is called The Reality Bug. Once again Bobby Pendragon is on the fight towards evil and has to save another territory. (If had ready the three other books you would know that Pendragon is where he has to go around and save things called Territories which are different places and even at different times.) In the other books he has went to second earth (where we live) Denduron, Cloral, Zadaa, First Earth (Earth in 1937), Third Earth (future earth), and now Veelox. When you get into the book it starts with Gunny (another traveler) and Pendragon coming out of the flume (the thing that takes them between territories). Then they face their enemy and the one who causes havoc through all the territories (tries to destroys them), Saint Dane.

Bobby and Gunny are blocking his way but they get tricked into letting him leave with realistic looking holograms of Saint Dane surrounding them. Then Gunny follows Saint Dane to another territory called Eelong. The adventure begins with Bobby, Veelox and the reality bug. Bobby gets to the territory and needs to find out what Saint Dane has done to tip the territory to its own demise. It turns out Bobby is not fighting something exactly physical he is fighting the imaginations of the people on Veelox.

The book shows is how it might be in our future. They have to fight the imaginations of people in the territory to hoping the y make the territory not fall to Saint Dane. It is hard to help people when all they want to do is be in their own alternate reality.

The style of the author of this book has kind of two points of view in some parts. It is in third person objective and others it is first person. He explains this book like it is actually teenagers talking or writing this book. He describes the types of things that would happen to these people.

He makes the references to junior and high school kids so I think that these books are meant to be read by junior or high school kids. I believe you could read it as an adult and still like it. It is the writing of a fifteen year old kid so I would stick with that main age group.

My New Favorite

Peak (2007)
Smith, Roland
Fiction
8/10

Warning: There is some descriptions that might be disturbing to people. (Dead Bodies)

In the book Peak a 14 year old boy (which is named Peak) is an avid climber. His parents also love to climb and were great climbers before Peak was born. For Peak's climbing practice he starts to climb skyscrapers and graffiti a Blue Mountain peak on the side of them. He has done this a couple of times and finally he gets caught in the act and goes to court. When he is faced with Juvenile Detention his real dad comes to take him on an adventure to get him out of the country, so he won't have to go to Juvenile Detention. But what Peak doesn't know is that his dad is going to take him up mount Everest. And his adventure begins here on mount Everest. Being the youngest kid ever to get to the top of the mountain.
This book goes on to show what relationship he has with his father and how he grows as a person. It shows us how we might need to act when given some challenging situations in our life. This book goes through the struggle of friendship and what that actually means.
It is written in a first person point of view of a fourteen year old boy writing in his journal. The author really captured what might a fourteen year old boy be thinking if he was put on Mount Everest facing the climb of his life. it also shows us the struggles of actually being on Mount Everest. This author captured all of this in his book and was able to make it and exciting book to read.
I would recommend this book to mostly boys who are ages twelve to eighteen year old but it could also be read by adults. It was would be a semi-quick read and would be able to show you a little more about Mount Everest and what happens up there. It might be a book that even though it is late at night that you just want to keep reading even though you know you should be asleep. "Here's the perfect antidote for a kid who thinks books are boring." said Publisher's Weekly. "This is a thrilling multifaceted adventure story... But he also explores other issues, such as the selfishness that nearly accompanies the intensely single minded. A winner at every level." said Booklist.