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